Saved By A Stranger, Loved By A Friend
by Artemis Moore
Summary: When Hiccup is kidnapped by Dagur will his new friend be able to keep him alive until his friends come to save him? Or will he die before they even know he's missing?
1. Kidnapped

The cold winter breeze brushed across his lightly tanned, freckle covered skin as he laid on the back of his dragon; Toothless. It was so early in the morning that the sun hadn't even shown itself over the horizon and was just barely beginning to light up the clouds around him giving everything a dark blue almost purple tint to everything around him. He loved coming out first thing in the morning but after the situation with Viggo and the constant threats from Dagur his friends hardly ever let the future Chief out of their sight even if just for a moment.

That's what made this day so perfect, he had managed to sneak out before any of his friends had woken up and they planned to be back before they realized he was gone. They would flip, especially Astrid, if they figured out he had snuck out to try his Fly Suit 12. He decided he needed to perfect it before his next battle with Viggo or anybody else. He figured the only person, or rather Dragon, he needed with him was Toothless. He had always been the one he found he could depend on. He trusted Toothless more than any human he had ever met and after four years of being friends Hiccup was proud to call Toothless his brother.

They had decided to go way off Dragons Edge so that if something did go wrong he wouldn't wake up any of the riders with his cry for his brother to help him. There was also the reason that the Eastern part of his map hadn't gotten as much love as the rest of the map, he figured it would be best to kill two birds with one stone as usual.

Hiccup sat up with a deep breath as he rubbed the top of Toothless's head. "Ready bud?" He asked, getting a look from his dragon that clearly said; _**I swear if you die human I will eat you.**_

Hiccup laughed at the look bis brother gave him before he slid his hands into the loops of his Dragonfly Fly-suit and sucked in a breath. "Here we go." He said, shakily standing on the back of Toothless before he jumped off, opening the wings of his suit and allowing himself to glide through the sky, looking down at the water which seemed almost completely empty aside from the occasional island here and there that looked deserted of all life said for a few trees. They were small and could be easily missed unless you were flying right over the top of it, catching the updrafts from it.

Hiccup glanced to his left where Toothless was flying near him, cautiously watching the brunette, making sure that nothing terrible happened to his brother if he was there to help him. Knowing that Toothless was there beside him made him smile and feel safer during these terribly dangerous situations. Situations that often made Astrid threaten to lock him up or break the flysuit. He knew she just worried about him but she also didn't understand what he was going through. The Dragon's Eye was taken from him while he did nothing to stop him. On top of that Viggo could have easily killed not only him but Toothless and if Toothless died an entire species of dragons would die out right along with him. He didn't want to be the reason a species died out and he would do all he possibly do to protect Toothless, even if it cost him his life.

Hiccup looked back down at the water and couldn't' help but glare at something below him. It deffinatly wasn't an island and after a moment of looking he figured out it was a ship, a Dragon-Hunting ship. "Toothless!" He yelled, looking at his dragon. "Scatter!"

The look on Toothless's face instantly turned to, _**Are you crazy?! I'm not leaving you!**_

"Go!" Hiccup knew that neither Dagur or Viggo would hesitate to kill Toothless and he wouldn't let that happen, even if it meant Hiccup died instead. Whether he crashed on the water or was shot out of the sky.

" _KILL THE NIGHTFURY!_ " An angry and easily identifiable voice. It was Dagur, a 19-year-old teen who always had an internal war over if he wanted to Kill Hiccup or keep him as a type of Pet. No matter what he wanted to do with Hiccup right now it was more than obvious what he planned for Toothless.

"Trust me bud, I'll be alright."

Toothless glared, but nodded and turned his wings and began to glide towards one of the islands, both he and Hiccup knowing both of their landings would likely be a crash landing they sucked in a breath and readied for pain.

Pain that came faster than either expected as the sound of catapults firing below the could be heard. They both looked down and Hiccup gasped. A boulder flew through the air, crashing into Toothless's chest making him curl in a ball and plummet towards the water below, but as much as Hiccup wanted to worry about his brother a net which wrapped around him, pulling his arms behind his back and his legs together stopping all possibilities of gliding in their tracks as he fell towards the water with a fearful scream.

Toothless it the water first followed by Hiccup who unconsciously sucked in a scared breath, inhaling a lungful of water as he gagged and tried not to panic. Toothless attempted to swim to him but Hiccup waved his hand, signaling the back off motion with his hand. Toothless seemed hurt by the fact that he wasn't going to let him help him but Toothless also didn't argue as he began swimming away from Hiccup and towards a small island in the distance.

Once Toothless was out of sight and Hiccup could feel himself being pulled towards the boat behind him. He then reached into his pants leg, struggling to pull out a small bottle of Boar-blood which he had learned would attract other boar that they would kill for food, but in this case it was a perfect story. Hiccup pulled the lid off the bottle and pushed it through the ropes of the net, letting the blood ooze out into the water and rise towards the top of the water, giving the appearance that Toothless had been fatally wounded, if not killed.

Hiccup was yanked out of the water and tossed onto the boat with a loud " _thump_ ". Hiccup began to cough violently, trying not to throw up all the salt water he had inhaled only seconds ago. His lungs burned, his throat felt as though it was swelling shut, and it felt like acid was pouring through his nose. After a painful and terrifying moment of being unable to get a clean breath of air he looked up and glared at Dagur.

"Sir, the water is red with blood!" Savage reported.

"Good." Dagur laughed, "Hear that, Hiccup, your Nightfury is dead." He said, examining the cold teen who shivered from under the thick and heavy rope.

"You bastard! I'll kill you!" He said, trying to get out of the net and attack Dagur.

Dagur laughed, "Aw, I've always loved that spirit, Hiccup, but in this case you're wrong. Without your Nightfury you're defenceless and seeing how you're a hothead I figure you're out here all on your own, and nobody will be able to save you." He laughed, clapping happily. "How exciting! I finally have Hiccup all to myself!" He turned to his men, "Toss him in the hold with the other one then set course to the isle of night, the the games will begin."

"Games? What games?" Hiccup glared as the rope was pulled off of him and his wrists were tied behind him and he was pulled towards the hold.

The hold was a mirror image to that he had seen on other Dragon-Hunting ships. There was six cages, three of which had dragons within in. Two of the cages had Zipplebacks, one purplish grey while the other was a dark blue. Then the last dragon had a yellow Gronkle all three of them looked very sad and even a little scared of the situation in front of them. There was an empty cage next to the Gronkle and the one right next to that had something in it, but instead of a dragon there was a human in there, looking outside the window sadly, their hands also tied behind their backs. Hiccup wasn't able to study them too much though before he was tossed in the final cage on the right side of the boat, opposite of the other human and next to the dark blue Zipplebacks cage.

The shove against his back made Hiccup stumble and fall on his hands and knees causing pain to shoot through his legs as he turned and looked over at his captor as they closed the cell door leaving Hiccup all alone to think of what to do next.

He was cold from his early morning swim, his lungs were still screamings from the water he had inhaled and now his stump was throbbing from the cold. Something it often did when the metal got wet or when a storm approached him. He hated the pain that was caused by all of it but he refused to complain. He had given himself up to protect Toothless and knew that it was his fault that he was captured, he wasn't going to complain for saving his best friend. His friends were going to be furious when they found out what happened through. _If_ they ever found out.

 _ **Toothless will be fine, Dagur and his men think he's dead and they won't go looking for him so he'll be safe. If the others come looking for me they'll find Toothless and will keep him safe. Whether or not I get saved doesn't matter, as long as Toothless and the others live.**_

Toothless

Toothless shuddered as his claws hit the sand and he pulled himself up onto the island. It took all the energy he had to make it to the island, which didn't help the fact that his chest was screaming in pain from being hit by a boulder. He had been hit before so he was used to the physical pain, but the pain of knowing Hiccup sacrificed himself to save him was something new that he didn't quite understand.

Toothless got further onto the beach and away from the water where he then allowed himself to collapse in exhaustion and face North, staring helplessly as he watched the boat his brother had been pulled onto and was being taken away on. Hiccup was being taken away and all he wanted to do was fly and rescue him, but he also knew that without a human to help control his prosthetic tail he was grounded. Literally.

 _ **Stupid human, why would you do that?!**_ He thought with a growl, which came out more like an exhausted purr. _**Sacrifice yourself for a dragon. A dragon! We could have fought back… why wouldn't you let me fight back… stupid human, if I ever see you again I'm going to sit on you.**_

"Hiccup!" He yelled as loudly as he possibly could, something which once again came out less powerful than he had hoped and sounded like a meow. If he hadn't been so exhausted he would have been embarrassed to make such a sound but in his current situation he didn't even care.

He allowed himself to lay there pitifully for a moment before he got to his feet and made his way towards a group of trees, sniffing curiously. He was cold, hungry, and just wanted to sleep. He wanted to sleep, but he refused to sleep, not until he had a plan to find his rider. He walked shakily, finding a bush of fruit. While it wasn't his favorite meal it was something he needed to at least try to use to get his energy back up.

 _ **I need to calm down, if I can't keep a cool head I can't help that stupid human save himself. I also need to stay awake and look for the other riders, they'll come looking for us once the sun comes up and they realize we're gone. As long as they've been listening to Hiccup they'll know he wanted to head East and fill out more of the map. If not… I'll be here a while… and I might not be able to save him in time.**_ Toothless shook his head. _**No no, don't think like that. My human may be stupid and self sacrificing but he doesn't give up he won't die easily.**_

Toothless took a mouthful of fruit and crunched down on it, gagging on the sickly sweet taste of the fruit on his tongue. He forced down enough fruit that he began to feel a bit sick but would be able to hold it down as he pulled up a dead bush and pulled it back onto the beach, catching it on fire and laying down next to it, attempting to warm up his scales by being next to an open flame.

Until the sun came up the rest of the way he would be stuck laying with just the fire.

 _ **Hang in there, Hiccup…**_ He thought, doing his best to fight off the sleep that was threatening to take over, _**I'll be there soon… just hold on and wait for me…**_ Despite the struggle he put up his eyes began to drift shut and he fell asleep.

Astrid

"I don't like this." Astrid told Stormfly as she rubbed her dragons wings and face the horizon, "They've never been gone this long…"

She had woken up two hours ago and the first thing she had done was check on Hiccup and Toothless. When she checked his bed though it was cold suggesting he had left a good hour before she had woken up. Normally she was be angry that the teen had left without a word, but it had gone from anger to worry and now it was forming to panic. Hiccup had snuck off of the island and would have done his best to keep it a secret, which would have included sneaking back before the sun came up.

The sun was now long passed up and she couldn't see or hear any sign of them on the island.

She sucked in a frustrated breath, heading to the Clubhouse where the remaining riders were sitting and enjoying their first meal of the day. She walked in and right over to the teens, slamming her hands down on the table.

"I think we should go looking for Toothless and Hiccup." She said, "They snuck off this morning and they're still not back."

Fishlegs, Ruffnut, and Tuffnut all looked at each other before back at Astrid.

"Yeah well does that really surprise you?" Tuffnut said, "You've been super bossy lately. Like." He cleared his throat before a very 'feminine' like voice. "Oh Hiccup, you're so crazy running off and doing your own thing I mean it's so unlike you to wonder off and do stuff like this, I mean it's not like you secretly trained a Nightfury with nobody else knowing." He said, getting a slap to the back of his head by his sister who gave him a glare and shook her head as if to say; _**That was a horrible Astrid impression.**_

"He has a point, Astrid." Fishlegs said, "Hiccup is always running off on his own, why should today be any different? Besides, he has Toothless and we all know he won't let anything happen to Hiccup."

"But…" Astrid wanted to argue.

"Tell you what." Snotlout said, "If my stupid cousin isn't back in two more hours we'll go looking for his sorry ass, but until then try to to relax." He said, leaning back in his chair and putting his arms behind his head.

Astrid wanted to argue but decided that there was really no point. She had been out-voted by the entire team and if Hiccup was in trouble it would be suicide for her to go out looking for him, it would just cause everybody more problems if she put herself in the same amount of danger he was in. "Fine." She said, "But if I'm right and they die, that's all on you." She growled, turning and walking out of the Clubhouse. She refused to just sit there, she was going to get Medical Kit's ready for if they left.

Astrid walked over to her hut, looking around the room for a moment until she walked over to her bed, opening the large chest next to it and looking inside. Under all her weapons there was a small fur satchel her mom had given to her before she left, it was full of emergency medical supplies which were mostly meant to keep somebody alive just long enough for Gothi or Gobber to arrive and help out if they were needed. She took stock, making sure she still had the healing gel which Gothi made the special concoction strong enough to not only help humans but it also helped dragons as well. Knowing Hiccup and Toothless if one of them was hurt they were likely both hurt and would both need medical attention.

"Astrid?" Said a voice which made Astrid turn, standing there was the only other human girl on the team, Ruffnut, who despite how she often acted was very smart. "Do you really think something is wrong?"

"I do." Astrid said, strapping the satchel around her hips before she grabbed her axe. "Why?"

"Because I have a feeling, a really really bad feeling and it's driving me crazy!" She said.

"Alright, I'm in." Ruffnut said.

"What?"

"I said I'm in. You supported me the last time I had a bad feeling and even though it turned out to be nothing then you were still there. I'm in." She said, "It doesn't matter if the feeling leads to nothing after all but I'll support you."

Astrid smiled. "Thanks, Ruff."

"Now come on, let's get the rest of them and head out, they'll all come, even if we have to drag them out by their-."

"Yeah I got it." Astrid said with a blush.

Astrid and Ruffnut walked out of her hut and made their way back to the Clubhouse. Astrid crossed her arms over her chest before she glared, "Come on, load up guys." She snapped.

"Didn't we just say to wait?" Snotlout said with a growl.

"Shut. Up. Let's go." Ruffnut said, grabbing her brother by her ear. "If you don't come voluntarily we will force you! Astrid is always there to listen about our bad feelings yet we're going to ignore her bad feeling? Now come on you cowards, Let's go."

Twenty minutes later they were all in the air, flying vertical to the rising sun.

" _I'm thinking the next time we go out we should head East, we haven't gone as far that way as we have in all the other directions._ " Hiccup's voice echoed through Astrid's thoughts.

 _ **I should have listened to him more, maybe then I would have realized that with or without us he would have left. I've been way too bossy.**_

"I'm sure he's fine, Astrid." Snotlout said, "I mean, it's Hiccup we're talking about, nothing can kill him."

"I hope you're right." She found herself whispering before she yelled out. "Okay, keep your eyes open. If they're just flying then we'll see them right away but if they've crashed they could be in the water or on a small island."

 _ **Hiccup, you better be alive when I find you or I will kill you.**_ Astrid growled, clenching her fist around the saddle, the pit in her stomach seeming to grow stronger with each moment.


	2. Found

Toothless whimpered and opened his eyes with a painful moan as he looked around. He could tell by how much the sun had moved he had been asleep for two, maybe even three hours. The sun was almost at it's highest point and was making his scales a warm enough that his joints no longer hurt and getting to his feet was easy and almost painless. He got up, shaking the sand and dirt off his body.

 _ **Okay, now that I'm rested I need to think of a way to get off this damned island…**_ Toothless thought as he walked over to the water's edge, sniffing it softly. _**I can't swim, they're too far ahead of me and I'd drown before I even started to catch up. With my tail the way it is and no rider to help me I can't fly, and I sure as hell can't sail a boat.**_ He sat down, tapping his tail frustratedly against the sand as he continued to think of plans.

Hiccup's captors had a good five hour head-start on him. Five hours his brother had been held by a bunch of hunters who had hurt him before, given him nightmares after only being held hostage for only two or three hours he couldn't even imagine what they had already put Hiccup through, nor what the effects would be on his rider-his friend-his brother. Whatever they were putting him through Toothless was going to make them pay, nobody hurt Hiccup, not while he was still alive.

Hiccup

Every inch of Hiccup's body hurt as yet another kick came to his ribs and he stumbled, falling backwards on the deck. His cheek was bruised and swollen, his wrists rubbed raw by the scratchy ropes that held them bound behind his back, and his stomach hurt from the amount of pain he was in. He felt like he was going to throw up simply because of the amount of pain and cold that surrounded his body. Of course it didn't help that Dagur had only just started the abuse, and refused to untie Hiccup's arms and give him a fair fight. Typical Dagur.

"Stand up, Brother." Dagur laughed, "We're not done yet."

Hiccup shuddered, forcing himself to his feet as he glared at Dagur, spitting a mouthful of blood onto Dagur's shoe. "I am _not_ your brother. The only brother I had was Toothless, and you killed him!"

"Aw," Dagur said, pouting out his bottom lip, "That just means the possession is open, Hiccup." He said, "But don't worry, it won't be empty for long, I'll gladly take it."

Hiccup snarled softly before slamming his head forward, colliding it with Dagur's. They both stumbled back, seeing stars as their heads throbbed in pain. Hiccup whimpered, regretting the move he had done but not as much as he was about too.

"Hold him down." Dagur snarled, pinching his nose which was bleeding.

The men didn't argue as they pushed Hiccup to the ground one pinning Hiccup's shoulders to the ground while the other one pinned his ankles allowing Dagur to walk next to him with a glare. Blood as dripping down the teens nose and over his lips and chin, making him look even scarier than the green eyed teen was used to.

Hiccup didn't know what Dagur was planning until it was too late and the teen swung his foot back before bringing colliding against the teen's ribs making him choke out in pain as he felt one of his ribs snap like a twig. Before Hiccup could recover from that wave of pain the foot was brought down again. And again. And again. By the fifth blow to his ribs and stomach Hiccup was in tears and that seemed to be enough for the Deranged Dagur to stop the assault.

Dagur smiled, signaling the men to let Hiccup go, upon regaining his freedom Hiccup curled up in a ball, tears dripping down the bridge of his nose and down his cheeks before finally dripping on to deck. "Pathetic." He mumbled, "Take him back to his cell and have coward tend to his wounds. The games will be no fun if he dies before it even starts."

"Yes sir." The men said together, and Hiccup could do nothing but whimper as he was picked up and carried down to his cell where he was then dropped on the ground.

Hiccup felt sick to his stomach, and he hated to admit it but he was terrified and when a gentle hand touched his shoulder he tried to move away from the touch. It had only been a few hours and already he hated being touched, he hated being looked at. He wanted to go home, whether to Berk or to the Edge, it didn't matter he just wanted to go to a familiar bed and hide.

 _ **Suck it up.**_ He told himself, _**You're a viking for Loki's sake! It doesn't matter how much pain you're in this is nothing compared to what you would be feeling if you let your brother died… Toothless is fine and that's all that matters, you just have to suck it up.**_

Hiccup shrunk away from the touch yet again as he looked up at the person kneeling above him. It was a girl who in a way looked extremely familiar but at the same time looked so very very different. She had short brown hair, and green eyes so bright he was entranced, he had never seen eyes that shade on a human before. Or at least not that he remembered. Another glance at her though made Hiccup frown, her arms were bruised along with her cheek and her wrists were rubbed raw from ropes much like his was. She looked as though had she had been held for days if not weeks.

She had a medical kit next to her and began cleaning up the wound on his cheek first. She cleared her throat before him in the eyes.

"Are you alright?" She asked quietly, gaining only a nod from the boy who was doing all he possibly could not to throw up. "I'm going to untie you, alright?" She said, hesitantly reaching over and undoing the ropes freeing the boy finally. He then took the chance to push himself up and crawl to the corner of the cage, finally giving into the feeling he had been holding in for so long.

All the water he had inhaled along with the food he had for dinner the night before made a reappearance on the floor of the cell, causing him to shiver yet again, the familiar feeling of being unable to breathe making him panic. Ten minutes later Hiccup managed to regain control of his stomach muscles and laid back down in the middle of the floor.

The girl frowned, reaching to the medical bag and grabbing a container of water and holding it to his lips. "Take a sip and when you feel like you can sit up so I can take a good look at you, alright?"

Hiccup nodded, taking in a sip of water as he was told before he sat up and leaned up against a wall of the cell. He took in a collection of breaths before looking at the girl. "What's your name?"

"Adara." She said simply, "Adara Lupinclaw."

The name alone made Hiccup frown, that name sounded so familiar it was basically screaming at him. He did his best to ignore that feeling though just as he was trying to ignore the throbbing pain from his wrists.

"I'm Hiccup Horrendous." He said, "It's good to meet you."

She smiled, "Dagur said you wouldn't remember me." She said, taking his hand carefully as she began to wrap up his bloody and bruised wrists.

"Remember you?"

Her smile faded, "My father was Froy the Friendly. My tribe is or rather _was_ in alliance with yours…"

Froy the Friendly was a name Hiccup did remember. He remembered Froy and all the meetings Froy, Dagur's father, and his father had done together. Froy always brought Hiccup presents along with his dad and he always brought his only child, a daughter with him to all the meetings. Adara was clearly that daughter. But from the way Adara talked about her dad made him suspect that he was no longer alive.

"What… what happened?"

"Dagur attacked my village two weeks ago… he killed everybody and took me… he said that he wanted to play a 'game' with me. Whatever the hell that means."

"He keeps bringing up a game when he's talking to me too." Hiccup frowned. "I'm sorry about your dad, Adara. What I remember of him he was a really kind name."

"His nickname was Froy the Friendly." Adara pointed out with a laugh.

Hiccup smiled and nodded. The more he looked at her the more he remembered playing with the girl while the adults "talked" and that the two of them did all they could to avoid Dagur who bullied both of them when they were not only apart but seemed to bully them even more when they were together. The abuse seemed to get twice as bad when they were together than when they were apart.

Hiccup watched Adara as she continued to patch him up and look him over before she finally looked up and said.

"Sorry, there's nothing I can do about your ribs or the pain, they won't give me much but that should at least prevent your wounds from getting infected." She told him, before licking her thumb and washing dried blood off his chin. "I wish there was more than I could do."

Hiccup smiled, "Don't." He said, "You've done plenty, thank you."

Adara gave a weak smile before she jumped as the cell door was opened and a guard walked in. He looked at Hiccup then back down at her.

"You're done." He said, grabbing her wrist and yanking her to her feet. He pulled her out of Hiccup's cell and tossed her back into her own right across the walkway, closing the cell doors so that neither of them could escape.

Hiccup watched as the girl walked away from the cell door and sat against a wall, the fear on her face made him glare, a flare of protectiveness pulsing through him. From what he remembered about Adara was that she was a very sweet and shy kid who did her best to stay out of the way, but she also cried easily which made her a perfect target to Dagur. He loved seeing the little thing cry and the fact that Hiccup would try to stand up or her sometimes just made the abuse even worse for both of them.

Hiccup glared as yet another guard walked over to his cell door pushing in a canteen of water to both him and to Adara.

"Drink up, that's all you'll be getting until tomorrow." He grumbled.

Hiccup took the water slowly, watching the man leave before he took a drink. "Don't worry, Adara, I'll get us out of this." He promised her.

Hiccup continued to take sips of the water until a wave of exhaustion hit him, his body slowly feeling like he was becoming paralyzed and after a moment the canteen dropped out of his and rolled on the floor before he fell back and landed hard on the floor. Darkness slowly engulfing him.

Astrid

Astrid kept her eyes cast down on the water below, feeling sicker by the moment. It had been three more hours since they had left Dragon's Edge in the search and now even Snotlout was beginning to fear for his cousin. Stormfly, being a Tracker Class dragon had managed to follow the scent of Toothless to an area of the ocean where the scent seemed to have just stopped without any warning.

Snotlout frowned, "Guys, I see something!" He called, pointed to the water and after only a second more of looking the rest of the group saw it as well, a large chunk of Hiccup's flight suit was floating in the water, torn to shreds.

"Guys, w-where are they?" He asked, suddenly seriously.

Snotlout stood up in the saddle as he cupped his hands over his mouth and yelled out. " _Toothless! Hiccup! Where are you guys?!"_

Snotlout's voice echoed for what like seemed like forever which made all of them frown as they began to give up, until there was a sudden yet comforting explosion to their left on a very small island that seemed like nothing more than sand with a patch of forest on it.

"That's Toothless!" Fishlegs said, as they all began flying towards the island.

 _ **Toothless won't let anything happen to Hiccup. Toothless won't let anything happen to Hiccup. Toothless is alive so that means that Hiccup is alive too. But why do I still feel like something is wrong?!**_ Astrid thought to herself, looking at the beach as a familiar black dragon came into view.

The closer they got the more excited Toothless seemed to become. He was spinning in circles, letting out cries to keep their attention all on him. He jumped into the air, flapping his wings dramatically.

They landed on the beach one at a time; first it was Astrid, and Snotlout, then the twins, and finally Fishlegs. The moment the dragons were safe on the ground the riders jumped off their dragons and ran over to Toothless who seemed to be panicking and crying out, look in those beautiful green eyes screaming; _**Where is my human?!**_

"Toothless." Snotlout ran over to him, "Where is Hiccup?"

Toothless seemed to become agitated as he ran to the edge of the water shooting a burst of energy to the north before he spun in a circle and jumped, letting out cries at the rivers and the other dragons. The more Toothless talked with the other dragons the more the dragons began to nudge their riders clearly saying; _**We have to go! We have to go! Get on we have to go!**_

"Okay, calm down." Astrid said, touching his head. "Let us take a look at you first and then we'll go find him." She promised, "You'll be no help to anybody if you collapse during the middle of a fight."

Toothless seemed to understand and bowed his head sadly. Astrid then took this chance to look him over cautiously. It was clear by the darker patch of scales on his chest that something big had hit him in the chest and had given him a nasty bruise but other than that the dragon looked more like all the pain that he was in was coming from his heart.

Toothless

 _ **Okay, the humans have found you, that's all that matters. Now you're one step closer to getting your human back.**_ He thought as Astrid rubbed some healing ointment on his chest which would help the pain go to a more numb like sensation.

" _ **Toothless what happened?**_ " Meatlug asked, between bites of rock.

" _ **We were flying around when those damned hunters jumped us. We crashed into the water and Hiccup, he was caught in a net. I tried to help him but he sent me away.**_ "

" _ **Sounds like he got sick of you, chose to be with the hunters instead of a broken Nightfury.**_ " Snorted Hookfang who hissed when Stormfly hit him with her tail.

" _ **Ignore him Toothless, I'm sure your human just wanted to protect you, as far as well all know you're the last Nightfury, if something happened to you you're entire species would die. He probably decided that him being taken was better than you getting killed.**_ "

" _ **I don't know, I think Hookfang is right.**_ " Belch said.

" _ **No way.**_ " Barf argued, " _ **Hiccup loves Toothless and wouldn't get sick of him. They're like brothers.**_ "

" _ **Well I get sick of you all the time, and we're brothers.**_ " Belch pointed out making Barf glare.

"There you go boy." Fishlegs said, holding a fish out for a very hungry Toothless who graciously took it, purring as the flavor washed out all remaining taste of the berries off his tongue.

" _ **No matter what the case. I will find that stupid human.**_ " Toothless said, " _ **I will drag him back to Dragon's Edge and sit on him until I know he will never scare me like this ever again.**_ "

"There." Astrid said, "We're done. I'll ride Toothless and we'll follow his lead seeing how he's the only one who know's where Hiccup has been taken. I'll have Stormfly follow behind me and the rest of you stay close. We don't know how much of a head start they have on us but I have a feeling we'll be in the air for quite a while." She said, climbing onto Toothless's back and rubbing his neck caringly.


	3. The Games

Hiccup moaned, the throbbing in his head slowly pulling him to consciousness, that and the cold air brushing on his skin. He opened his eyes slowly, glaring against the sun which was slowly beginning to set suggesting he had been gone for over eight hours already. By now his friends knew they were looking for him, no way they wouldn't be. He felt bad, they had to be so worried.

Hiccup looked around and soon realized that he was surrounded by Dragon Hunters, which made him gasp and sit up, feeling a tug on his right wrist. Panicked he looked down and saw that his wrist was shackled to the left wrist of Adara with small links of metal between his shackle and hers, a design of metal he had never seen before. He tagged on the wrist shackle, making Adara blink awake and sit up dizzily.

"What's going on?" She asked, then gasped and tried to crawl behind Hiccup when she saw the hunters staring them down.

"Let me explain." Dagur laughed, "We're going to play a game, a game of which decides on how you're going to die." He said, "We're approaching an island and when we get there we will give you two pathetic little kids a ten minute head start, but that is the only handicap you get." He chucked wildly, "Get it Hiccup, cuz you have a missing leg! A handicap!"

"I get it." Hiccup said, glaring.

"Good." He said, suddenly serious, "Cuz it wouldn't be as fun if you didn't." He purred, grabbing the shackles that kept them stuck together as he pulled them to their feet. "All you two have to do is survive until morning. If you survive in the morning we'll let you live, but because we _all_ know you won't survive that long it really just depends on how long you do live. If you put up a good fight we will kill you painlessly, but if you fail to provide a good enough source of entertainment I will order my men to kill you in the most possible ways possible, then when you're dead we'll feed what's left of your bodies to the dragons below deck."

"Dragons…" Adara gasped, fear making her face go pale.

"Dragons!" He laughed, grabbing her cheeks in his hands excitedly. "We'll kill you last, so you can watch the dragons rip your little friend Hiccup apart."

Hiccup let his hand brush the girls reassuringly before he took her hand in his. He wasn't going to let her go, he wasn't going to let her die. He didn't abandon Toothless in the middle of the ocean to let him down by letting Dagur kill an innocent. Whether it was an innocent dragon or person Hiccup wasn't going to let Adara die when there was even a small chance of being able to save her.

Moments later the boat hit land making Adara and him stumble slightly, which in turn made the hunters laugh in amusement. Dagur then pushed them towards the edge of the boat while his men dropped a plank from the boat to the sand below. He then stuck his head between theirs and whispered.

"You have ten minutes, starting now."

Hiccup didn't hesitate and yanked Adara forward as they ran down the plank and onto the sand. The sand, like always slowed them down quite a bit but they didn't stop running and they ran toward the center of the island, hoping to hide in the thick jungle all around them. They had to find a place to hide, even if just for a moment. If they could just find a place to stop and gather their thoughts they could come up with a plan to get out of there and get to safety.

Toothless

Toothless could feel where Hiccup was, he couldn't explain it to himself, let alone any of the others but he knew that Hiccup was straight ahead. He also knew they were still a few hours away and that he was in a load of danger. They had to get there, they had to get to where Hiccup was and save him. If Toothless had to go against all of Hiccup's wishes and kill Dagur he would. Nobody hurt _his_ brother and got away with it.

He let out a huff, watching as his breath came out in a small amount of steam. It was getting late, the sun was going down and was taking the heat away with it.

" _ **Toothless.**_ " Meatlug said, " _ **We need to stop and take a break.**_ "

" _ **What?! No! We can't stop now!**_ " Toothless almost yelled, " _ **That's my brother out there!**_ "

" _ **We have to, Toothless.**_ " Stormfly said, " _ **We're not all as athletic as you are, we aren't made for long distances at fast speeds. Besides, it's getting cold.**_ "

Hiccup stopped and turned the others, making Astrid gasp and hold onto the saddle tighter in fear of being tossed off his back. " _ **DON'T YOU THINK I KNOW THAT?! I CAN FEEL THE TEMPERATURE DROPPING! I CAN FEEL MYSELF GROWING MORE TIRED! I KNOW YOU ALL WANT TO STOP BUT MY BROTHER IS OUT THERE SOMEWHERE HURT OR DYING AND YOU GUYS ALL WANT TO STOP BECAUSE YOU'RE 'TIRED'?! DAGUR AND VIGGO AREN'T GOING TO LET HICCUP REST!**_ " Toothless roared making all the humans look at each other worriedly as their dragons seemed to become sad. " _ **You guys can stop if you want, but until I see my brother again I'm not stopping. Not for anything.**_ "

" _ **But Toothless-.**_ " Hookfang started.

" _ **No, you guys would all do the same thing if it were your human! You didn't have to sit on an island while your rider was taken away from you! You didn't have to watch helplessly as the mast of the ship vanished into the horizon! You don't understand the uselessness I felt-that I'm**_ _ **feeling**_ _ **! I let my brother get captured and I could do**_ _ **nothing**_ _**about it.**_ " Toothless growled, turning as he began to fly, part of him feeling thankful when the others continued to follow him, not saying another word.

Hiccup

Hiccup sniffled as he did his best to stay warm as clouds began to roll in, blocking out the sun that was already beginning to set. He could tell simply by the smell and the pain radiating through his stump where the metal touched; that it was going to snow and making hiding from Dagur and his crew.

"Are you alright?" Adara whispered, shivering against the cold wind that danced between the trees and hit them.

"Y-yeah, my leg hurts, but I'm fine." He whispered back. "I just wish we could start a fire."

Adara nodded, "N-n-n-no kidding. But they would see the smoke or the light from it." She said, "Doesn't mean we can't find a cave or something to rest in for a moment."

Hiccup smiled, the two stopping and looking around for a moment before a small space caught his attention. It was hardly noticeable at first but once he saw it it was almost impossible to miss. The two, who were still holding hands, made their way through the trees and over to the mouth of the cave.

Hiccup went in first, wiggling between the two rocks which served as a type of entrance for the two of them that then lead to an opening which was a small oval shaped cave. Hiccup helped her into the dark cave, which despite the below freezing temperatures outside was surprisingly warm. The two then walked over to one of the walls of the cave, curling up together as they examined the weird links of metal between their shackles. Neither of them had ever seen anything like it before which made Hiccup feel curious but it just seemed to stress Adara out more and more.

Hiccup and Adara then sucked in a breath and unconsciously held it as they listened to the men hunting them were cheering and calling them out, making mocking like sounds towards them. They were trying to lure them out but that seemed to only scare Adara more and Hiccup, while he wouldn't admit it, was also becoming nervous as the fire of a torch shone through the cave and passed them by.

"I have an idea." Hiccup said, once he was sure that Dagur's men were out of earshot. "But it's risky and I can't do it without you."

Adara, a naturally timid and fearful person seemed to have a new flair of determination as she sucked in a breath. "Alright, I'm in, what do we need to do?"

"We just need to get to one of Dagur's boats we can sneak out and get out of here."

"Good plan." She smiled, "I have one question though, how do we get passed Dagur's entire armada, steal a boat, and sneak out without raising alarm?"

"I never said we were going to sneak out on a boat. We need to sneak onto one, then use a dragon to sneak out."

"Wait-wait-wait. I followed you until the part with the dragons. You do realize Dragons are wild crazy animals who last I checked _killed_ humans!" She said with a loud whisper.

"No no, Dragons don't kill humans, they kill livestock, fish, and sometimes other dragons. They don't attack humans unless the humans are threatening them in some way." He promised, "Trust me, if we can just get on a boat I can get us a dragon to use to get out of here."

Adara hesitated yet again before she nodded. "Okay, how do we do this?"

"We go back the way we came. We go slow, stay low to the bushes, and we stay safe."

Adara nodded yet again, "Okay, when do we leave."

"It's going to sound crazy but the best time will probably be when the snow starts to fall."

"Crazy, that's sane compared to the fact that you just told me you wanted to try and steal wild dragons, from a bunch of Dragon Hunters who are also hunting and trying to kill us." She pointed out with a smile.


	4. Racing The Sun

Astrid frowned, her butt numb from sitting on Toothless's saddle for so long. The closest guess she had was that Hiccup had been missing for almost fourteen hours and she was beginning to lose hope that they would ever find him. The last time Hiccup had been missing this long he had been held hostage by Alvin for two days, they were sure they weren't going to find him alive then and compared to Dagur Alvin had much more patience than the rowdy teenager. On top of all that it was now dark, and now it was beginning to snow.

"Guys." She said, "We need to find a place to land and soon."

Toothless let out a grunt, as if to say; _**No! We're so close!**_

"I know, Toothless." She said, "But the snow is so thick we can hardly see anything if we did find him in this storm we could end up walking right into a trap without even knowing. We're not help to him if we get captured too."

Toothless seemed to sigh but let out a weak burst of energy, the sound echoing and bouncing back to him, telling him that there was an island near by. He angled his wings slightly as they flew towards the small island, landing a bit rough. Toothless shook violently as he stood on the sand while the other dragons seemed to full on collapse. Between the cold and the constant flying they were all exhausted.

Astrid climbed off of Toothless and made her way to Stormfly, running her hands across her dragons wings and side as she often did after a long uncomfortable flight. Her dragon purred softly pulling Astrid under her wing and into the warmth that she put off naturally. Astrid smiled, looking over at Toothless who simply sat on the edge of the island looking North still.

 _ **We'll find him, Toothless. I promise…**_ She thought, letting her eyes drift shut. _**Just a small nap and then we'll find him.**_

Hiccup

Hiccup peeked over a snow covered bush as the snow continued to fall. The snow was falling in big clumps which were almost impossible to see through. Despite the fact that it was snowing and that it was freezing cold there had been more than once that Dagur and his men had walked right passed them, refusing to give up the search for the two teenagers.

Hiccup looked over at Adara before he gave her a careful smile and the two began to creep along again, their feet crunching the snow under their boots. It was loud an almost scary to hear but they kept doing their best to stay quiet and to stay calm.

 _ **Six hours til sunrise.**_ He thought, _**But I doubt no matter if we make it til the sun comes up Dagur will still find a way to kill us. We have to get the hell out of here before they find us or figure out what we're trying to do.**_

They walked along in silence until a sudden scurrying sound to their right made them jump. The two stared at the bushes. Hiccup felt a tightness in his stomach, he didn't know what was back there but honestly he didn't want to know.

"I found them!" Yelled a voice as an arrow shot out of the bush, flying through the air right between them.

"Run!" Hiccup yelled, grabbing her hand and running, pulling the girl close behind him as they dashed through the snow, the man following directly behind them, and after he had yelled they could hear a large amount of the men following them.

The two teens dodged and weaved through the constant stream of trees, doing all they possibly could to avoid the branches as well as the group of attackers close behind them. They took a sharp left, then a right, then yet another right which ended up being a huge mistake. Upon making the right turn Hiccup's metal leg slipped on the snow.

Hiccup slipped, falling on his rear as he slid down a steep hill, dragging Adara directly behind him. He dug his real foot into the snow as he grabbed whatever he possibly could to slow down their fall.

"Cliff!" Adara yelled, catching Hiccup's attention. He gasped, once again continuing to do all he could to stop their fall but it was impossible to avoid as they fell right off the edge.

Hiccup and Adara let out screams as they fell through the air. Hiccup looked down and closed his eyes, he knew what was going to happen next and he knew that it was going to hurt like hell, all he could do was prepare for the pain.

It went from floating through the air to crashing into the water within seconds, the cold, partially frozen water, hit them like a some to their back as they plunged deeper into the darkness. Hiccup struggled as he tried to swim the the surface while also supporting the barely conscious Adara.

 _ **I can't let her die. I have to try and save her.**_ He thought when they finally reached the top. He let in a gasp, pulling Adara up so that her head was out of the water. He then wrapped his arms around the girl who was shivering violently. _**At this rate we're both going to freeze to death.**_ He thought, _**New plan. We need to find a cave and start a fire.**_ He shivered again, breaking the ice with his elbow as they swam towards the edge of the river.

Once he was over to the edge he crawled out, pulling Adara out behind him.

"H-H-H-Hiccup." She said, her face pale and her lips almost a blue in color. "I-I-If we cut off my hand you can make it too the beach." She said, her voice cracking like she was going to cry but she was simply too cold to form any real tears. "T-t-t-t-there's no reason w-w-w-we bot-both have to d-d-die here."

"Don't t-talk like that." Hiccup said, helping her to her feet with a whimper of pain. The parts of his prosthetic leg were frozen together and limping would be the only possible way to get through this. "W-w-w-w-we're both going to g-g-g-get t-t-to a ca-c-cave and we'll be fine."

Adara gave a weak smile as they continued along, both supporting each other to the best of their abilities. They could see a cave about fifteen yards from where they were and they could only hope that they would make it safely to the cave without freezing to death.

Toothless

Toothless huffed, moving his tail from his right side to his left as he struggle to hold off the shivers. It was cold, and he was now the only one awake while the rest took a nap to try and recover their energy for the flight. Toothless let his lip tremble softly as he put his ears down.

 _ **Hold on brother, I'm almost there. I'm almost there…**_

Toothless allowed himself to close his eyes for but a second when he heard it, an unmistakable scream echoing through the storm. It sounded close, really really close. He wasn't the only one who heard it though, for it made Hookfang and Stormfly wake up as well.

" _ **Did you guys hear that?**_ " Hookfang said.

" _ **Wake the humans!**_ " Toothless ordered, as he got to his feet and let out a roar like sound. " _ **HICCUP!**_ " He yelled, the load roar waking up the others all around him. " _ **I'M COMING BROTHER!**_ "

"What is it?" Astrid yawned as Toothless roared out yet again in the direction of the scream. "Did you hear Hiccup?"

Toothless nodded; " _ **Yes! Get on! Hurry we have to help him! We have to help him!**_ "

Astrid, seeming to understand what Toothless was trying to say Astrid ran to him, climbing on his back. Without a second's warning Toothless shot into the air following the sound that he had heard. He took looked around, scanning the ground as the snow began to lighten up.

Ashe thought there was another island next to the small one they had landed on to rest, and there was a handful of ships surrounding it. Toothless snarled, looking at Stormfly.

" _ **Can you smell him?**_ "

" _ **Not yet, but I'll keep trying.**_ " Stormfly promised.

Hiccup

"Hiccup…" Adara said weakly as they sat near a fire doing their best to warm up. "There's something I need to tell you…"

Hiccup looked at her, frowning. "W-w-w-what is it?"

"I um… I always have l-loved you, H-Hiccup, a-a-and I don't mean as a friend or a potential boyfriend, nothing like that. You're the closest thing I ever had to a brother and… I wanted to say th-thank you for that."

Hiccup smiled, "No problem." He said, pulling her head against his shoulder with his free hand, "I-I just wish I-I could do more…"

Adara smiled, "It's okay." She said, "I know you did your best."

"Awww, how touching." Snapped a voice making Hiccup and Adara gasp and look towards the entrance of the cave.

"Dagur." Hiccup growled protectively as he stood up, holding his hand down so that she didn't have to stand and exhaust herself even more.

"Give it up, Brother. You lose."

Hiccup glared, clenching his fist. "L-Lost or not I'm not giving up." He glared, "I-I-I'm n-n-not going to l-le-let you hurt her." He snapped, his knees trembling from cold.

Dagur laughed, "Please, Hiccup, you can hardly stand. There's no way you're going to be able to protect a pathetic coward like her for much longer."

"H-he doesn't hav-have too." Adara glared, standing up, her knees trembling just as bad as his was. "I can defend myself. I-I-I won't let you hurt him anymore, D-D-Dagur."

Dagur laughed, looking at the three men he had brought with him into the cave. "Kill them." He ordered too.

The men walked towards them, all armed with swords and maces. They were going to kill them, and the two teens knew that, but they were _not_ going to give up without a fight. Adara reached down grabbing a piece of wood that was on fire while Hiccup readied his fists. The men laughed, one with a sword running directly towards them.

He swung his sword down, the two teens both attempting to jump away from the blade, which sliced not only through the linked metal but also into the top layer of Adara's forearm making her cry out. They were free from each other but now they were trapped with the enemy.

"Adara!" Hiccup yelled, then gasped as a second man grabbed Hiccup's arms yanking them backwards, causing one of his shoulders to pop out of place and in turn made Hiccup scream out in pain. The third man then pulled out a blade, readying to end Hiccup then and there; the shivering teen refused to give up though.

The third man lunged his sword forward and Hiccup managed to rip his good arm free, dodging the sword just in time to watch it plunge deep into the stomach of the second attacker. The third man, seemed shocked see this the pain on his buddy's face and was distracted enough by the other man that he didn't even notice when Hiccup picked up a rock and brought it down hard on his head, causing him to fall to his knees and then to the ground.

Hiccup had but a moment to prepare for the next attack but it was too late when Dagur did a roundhouse kick to his chest knocking the breath out of him and making him stumble back. Once again he felt like he was going to throw up because of pain and cold, his broken ribs becoming more agitated to the newest kick. Hiccup looked up at Dagur readying his fists as he swung his right arm at him, then his left, then his right again, each swing being easily dodged by the older teen. Dagur then dropped down, sweeping his legs and knocking Hiccup's legs out from under him, making the younger teen land on his back his head making a " _crack_ " like sound upon hitting the ground.

Hiccup was seeing stars of white and black each flash making him feel sicker and sicker. Between the flashes though he could see Dagur standing above him with a sword, ready to bring it down on his chest. Hiccup allowed himself to go limp and close his eyes, accepting his death at Dagur's hand when the sound of metal clanking together made his eyes snap right back open. Adara was next to him, the sword the first man had used to attack her in her hands, a look of determination in her green eyes that made Hiccup smile and Dagur growl.

"I will _not_ let you hurt him!" She yelled.

"You sound just like Hiccup!" Dagur yelled, bringing back his sword and swinging it down at her with enough force that it knocked her away from Hiccup and was almost enough force to knock the sword clear out of her hands.

Adara gasped, as yet another swing from Dagur, this time from the other direction knocked her back against the cave wall. Dagur raised his sword towards her, making Hiccup panic as he tried to get to his feet.

He needed to get up! He needed to help her! He needed to save her! "NO!" He yelled as Dagur lunged the sword towards her chest.


	5. Rescued

"No!" Hiccup yelled, his voice echoing through the cave as he watched helplessly as one of his childhood friends was about to be killed right in front of him. He had promised himself that he would protect Adara, that he wouldn't let anything bad happen to her, and here he was, in too much pain to even sit up, let alone run to her rescue.

Dagur lunged the sword forward towards her chest, but just before the sword hit her an axe flew through the air and collided with it, knocking it out of Dagur's hand and to the ground the metal clanking hard against the rock floor of the cave.

Dagur cursed, turning towards the mouth of the cave, Hiccup managing to turn his head and look the same way. Standing there was a very _very_ angry Snotlout. Snotlout snot a glare to Hiccup, before pointing at him.

"You are so grounded." He snapped at his cousin making Hiccup smile weakly.

"I can deal with that." Hiccup said.

"Gross." Dagur said, grabbing Adara's wrist and yanking her in front of him and putting a blade to her throat. "Back of Snotass, or I kill the girl."

Snotlout glared, it was clear he didn't recognize the girl and normally wasn't sure on if him killing her was a mistake but one look at Hiccup's face and he knew that the girl was important to him. Snotlout scrunched his nose and took a few steps into the cave and away from the entrance, all the while not taking his eyes off of Dagur who side-stepped to the mouth. Once he got to the mouth he shoved Adara forward, almost knocking the girl off her feet before she slammed into Snotlout's chest.

Dagur then smiled, "See you guys again soon, and next time you won't be so lucky." He said, before taking off into the woods.

"Don't let him get away." Hiccup rasped.

"Stop, we'll worry about him later." Adara said, holding her bleeding forearm and she bent next to him. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." Hiccup said, whimpering in pain as Snotlout lifted his head and helped him into a sitting position. "Where's Toothless."

"With Astrid, we split up to look for you. It's just me and Hookfang." Snotlout said, lifting Hiccup and shrugging him onto his back. "Come on." He told Adara, "We need to get you guys out of here and warming up. Now."

Adara didn't argue as she followed Snotlout and Hiccup out of the cave, gasping loudly when she saw Hookfang; a Monstrous Nightmare standing right outside the cave, his head tilted curiously.

"Hookfang, flame." Snotlout ordered and Hookfang did as he was told opening his wings to spread the warmth out more.

Hiccup's head was throbbing and his eyes were beginning to drift shut. He was so very very tired. He knew he was safe now, and that fact made all the exhaustion hit him at once. All he wanted to do was close his eyes and sleep but at the same time he refused to fall asleep until he knew for sure Toothless was okay.

Hiccup whimpered as Snotlout sat him down next to Hookfang, the warmth of the dragon's flame making his once freezing body rise up to a more comfortable temperature. Hiccup then looked back towards the mouth of the cave where Adara seemed frozen in fear.

"Come on," He said with a smile, "It's alright, I promise."

Adara hesitantly nodded before walking over to Hiccup and sitting next to him, her shivers quickly going from 'cold' shivers to 'fear' trembles. "Is the dragon wearing a saddle?" She whispered.

"Yeah, I'll explain later." Hiccup said, both watching as Snotlout cupped his hands over his mouth and let out a 'Nightfury' cry, something which he wasn't very good at but it got the point across. It was the clear signal that he had found who they were looking for. "Thank you for helping us, Snotlout."

Snotlout snorted, "Trust me, if Ruffnut hadn't threatened to drag us all out by our-."

"Hiccup!" Astrid's voice called, followed by a very excited Nightfury chirp pulled Hiccup's attention off of his cousin and up towards the sky as Astrid and his best friend landed on the ground.

Astrid hopped off of Toothless's back, running over with the black dragon right behind him. "Are you alright?!"

"I'm fine, Astrid." Hiccup smiled weakly, "I just can't wait to get home." Hiccup then laughed softly as Toothless licked his cheek and snuggled against his hand, his eyes wide and full of worry, to the point where Hiccup was honestly beginning to expect tears to roll down from the Nightfury's eyes. "I'm glad you're alright too, bud." He said. "But we can't say any of us are safe until we get back to the edge." Hiccup said, "How far away are we?"

"Well seeing how we don't have to zigzag to look for your sorry ass it'll take half the time, but it'll still take six hours and the dragons are beyond exhausted." Astrid said, turning her head as the twins and Fishlegs landed behind them.

"Y-yeah I know that but it's too dangerous to stay on this island." Hiccup said, glancing at Adara who was basically hiding behind him by this point, having used up all her braveness fighting Dagur and his band of bastards. "Adara and I need medical a-attention." The words caught in his throat for a second as he fought off a burning feeling in the back of his throat, "Not to mention Dagur is still here and will start hunting us again if we're not long gone. We start making our way back to the edge, We'll go for about half an hour then find an island to rest on until morning."

"Sounds like a plan, I call the cute girl riding with me." Tuffnut smiled and winked at Adara who just blinked in exhausted confusion.

"No, Adara stays with me." Hiccup said, "She's scared of dragons and I promised I wouldn't leave her." He said.

Adara frowned then spoke up, just loud enough for everybody to hear. "No, you guys should just go." She said, "I can try to keep Dagur and his men busy while you escape." She crawled away from Hookfang before she stood up, gripping her still bleeding arm.

"No way." Hiccup said, getting up as well, stumbling, and almost falling when his prosthetic leg hit the ground. The only thing that kept the teen on his feet was Toothless who held him up protectively. "I'm not leaving you here, that's not what friends do." He said, then hissed in pain as he climbed onto Toothless's back, the constant throbbing pain from the cold metal against his stump nagging at him. He held out his hand with a smile as he helped Adara onto Toothless behind him. The young girl instantly wrapped her arms around his waist hiding her face in his wet clothes. "Ready?"

"Ready?" She laughed, "No, no I'm not. I am the opposite of ready, I'm one second away from climbing off this dragon and running into the forest until I get lost and freeze to death." She said, then yelped as Toothless got a running start and jumped into the air, flying. "Oh gods, oh gods, oh gods; I'm going to die!" She said, clenching him tighter and tighter until Hiccup couldn't help but whimper in pain, which seemed to have been enough to snap the girl out of her death grip.

Toothless

It was hard for the dragon to understand what had happened in the cave and of course Hookfang, who had been too big for the cave, was no help in filling in the blanks for him. All he knew though was now he had two people riding on him. Sure one of them was Hiccup but this other girl was a complete strange and he could sense that she was terrified of not only him but all the dragons around her.

Toothless looked over his shoulder at Hiccup, who looked pale, even for a human. " _ **This isn't good. He's shivering and his clothes are freezing but I can also tell his skin is very warm. He's getting sick and knowing this mutton-head he won't say anything until he passes out. I really am going to have to sit on him, aren't I**_." Toothless turned his attention back in front of him as they came up to an island, a good half-hour flight from where they had found Hiccup and this stranger.

Toothless was the first to land and churred worriedly when Hiccup climbed off and stumbled, before falling to his knees. He wasn't the only one worried though, for the second Hiccup hit the ground the strange girl was by his side, making the dragon growl protectively, fear of the girl hurting his rider ever clear.

" _ **One wrong move and I'll eat you.**_ " He threatened with a huff, but his threat went ignored by the human girl who had tears in her eyes. " _ **What are you doing? Don't cry human girl, it's okay.**_ " He said, putting his ears down, " _ **I didn't' mean to make you cry!**_ "

"This is all my fault." She said, "I wasn't sneaky enough, I-If I had been we wouldn't have fallen in the water. Our plan would have worked but I was too loud."

" _ **You see this, Hiccup, you're making the human girl cry. That's what you get for being stupid, I hope you feel guilty. I should sit on you until you feel guilty.**_ " Toothless sighed, watching as the other dragons landed and the riders ran to Hiccup's aid, helping him to his feet. " _ **YOu can't keep doing this, Brother, we all depend on you**_."

"Hookfang, clear away an area of snow." Astrid ordered and Hookfang did as he was told by opening his wings and flattening against the ground, allowing his scales to catch on fire and melt the snow. "Ruff, Tuff, you two go gather some firewood. Snotlout and Fishlegs go see what kind of food you can find, I'll take care of Hiccup."

"I-I can help." The strange human girl spoke up. "I-I-I worked under the medicine woman in my village."

" _ **Well, that's more training than the rest of them have**_." Toothless though nudging Hiccup over to the spot which Hookfang had successfully cleared of all snow and had even made warm. Hiccup then laid down and curled in a ball, something which Toothless gladly copied and laid by his head, gently dropping his tail fins across hiccup's stomach and chest attempting to do whatever he could to warm his brother up. " _ **But that's still not much. We need to get back to Dragon's Edge and call for the small woman, Gothi. My brother is sick and he might only get worse if we don't have her here with us."**_

"It's okay, bud." Hiccup said, a look on his face being one of pure exhaustion. It was clear he was one step away from passing. "I'll be alright."

"Here's our medical kit." Astrid said handing it to the strange as she watched the new girl carefully go to Hiccup and begin working on him She lifted up his shirt, getting protests from the already cold dragon rider.

"Deffinatly broken ribs, they'll heal on their own but they'll need time to do so, Hiccup will have to be in bed rest for a while." The girl mumbled to herself.

" _ **Hiccup? Bed rest? That's like telling the twins not to say something stupid for a full day, it's not going to happen. I guess I really will have to sit on him.**_ "

She pulled his shirt down and then rolled up his pants leg with a hiss. "I need to remove your prosthetic." She told Hiccup, pulling off the fake leg and putting it next to him, "The place where the metal was touching was beginning to get frostbite."

Toothless continued to watch her and frowned when he saw her forearm was wounded and while it had mostly scabbed over part of it was still oozing blood. " _ **Hey, hey human girl, you're hurt too.**_ " He purred, looking at Astrid and then back at her arm. " _ **Come on, Astrid, you're not blind! Help her.**_ "

Astrid, seeming to have understood the gesture and frowned. "Hey, you're hurt too." She said, "What happened to you guys?" She asked.

"She saved me." Hiccup said, still struggling to stay awake as the girl cleaned up his stump and began to bandage it. "If she hadn't reacted when she did I wouldn't be here right now."

" _ **This skittish human saved Hiccup from Dagur?**_ " Laughed Hookfang getting a warning growl from Toothless.

" _ **Shut up and listen.**_ " Toothless snapped at him.

Astrid frowned, looking at the cuffs on their hands, the new and old bruises and them, and even old bandages on Hiccup made her look sick. "What all did Dagur do?"

"He beat the hell out of Hiccup." The girl said, "Would have kept beating him up if he hadn't decided he wanted to hunt us down like they do dragons…"

" _ **They were hunting my brother?!**_ " Toothless snarled, rubbing his head against Hiccup who had finally passed out from the pain and the exhaustion. " _ **If I**_ _ **ever**_ _**see Dagur or any of his men ever again, I'm going to kill them.**_ " He mumbled.

"Alright, that's all I can do." The girl said, then jumped fearfully when Astrid took her hand and began to wrap up her wounded forearm. "W-w-what are you doing?"

"Helping you, Duh." Astrid smiled.

The girl smiled, not struggling away from the warrior's touch. Toothless draped his tail over Hiccup's thighs and on the girl's thighs as well, doing his best to comfort not only his sleeping brother but the girl who had tried to save the silly rider.

" _ **Are you alright, Toothless?**_ " Barf asked, as he nuzzled Ruffnut against his chest attempting to warm up his own rider.

" _ **I am fine… now.**_ " He said, unconsciously smirking as he put his head down on the ground, which essentially made a protective circle around Hiccup.

" _ **Until your human does something stupid again.**_ " Hookfang growled.

" _ **Well hopefully that won't be any time soon. Unlike your rider Hiccup learns.**_ " Stormfly said, watching Astrid bandage the girl's arm. " _ **Your rider's only talent seems to be stupidity.**_ "

Hookfang went to argue but upon thinking about it shrugged in agreement and pulled Snotlout under his wing, doing his best to warm the hot head up.

"All done." Astrid smiled, "Try and rest, we'll sleep here for a few hours and then we'll take you back to Dragon's Edge."

The girl nodded hesitantly, clearly unsure what 'Dragons Edge' was, but she wasn't going to argue. She looked at Hiccup who was laying against Toothless's chest and after a hesitant moment she laid down as well, putting her head down next to Toothless's neck. She smelt of fear and Toothless could feel her trembling, she was clearly afraid of the large black dragon who surrounded her.

"Hiccup, Hiccup wake up." Said a scared voice that pulled Toothless out of his light slumber. He opened his eyes to see the girl shaking Hiccup awake, or trying. She was pale and put her head against his chest.

" _ **What are you doing, skittish human?**_ " Toothless asked, his chittering making the girl jump.

"H-h-he won't wake up." She did her best to explain. "His breathing is weak." She said and Toothless felt his stomach flip.

" _ **What?**_ " Toothless scrambled to his feet, sniffing Hiccup and nudging him with his head not even gaining a moan from his brother. " _ **Hiccup! Hiccup! Wake up!**_ "

Hearing the commotion Astrid and the other riders began to stir as well. "What's going on?" Astrid asked with a yawn.

"We need to get him out of here and to a shelter of some kind." The fearful teen said. "We need to go to whatever this 'Edge' is and now." She said, stomping her foot. "Or he will die."

The group was quiet for a moment before Snotlout snapped, "You heard the girl! Load up!" He said, running to Hiccup and picking him up, placing him on Toothless's back.

"You-." Astrid pointed to the new girl, "You'll ride on Stormfly and I'll ride with Hiccup because I know how to use the foot petal. The three of us will go on ahead because we're faster." Astrid looked at the rest of the team, "You guys stay together and head towards towards the edge and we'll see you soon." Astrid took the girl's hand leading her to Stormfly and helping her onto the Nadder's back.

" _ **Three fish say's the little coward falls off.**_ " Hookfang laughed.

" _ **Shut up.**_ " Meatlug snapped, watching as the girl gripped onto the saddle while Astrid climbed onto Toothless's back. " _ **We'll see you guys at the Edge.**_ "

Toothless nodded, shooting into the air, Stormfly right behind them, the two flying as fast as they possibly could without putting themselves in danger.

"When we get to the Edge follow me." Astrid told the girl over the roar of the wind. "I'll take you to the Clubhouse and give you all the help you need. Then I'll send a message to Berk and ask for Gobber or Gothi to come help us."

"O-okay." The girl said, her eyes closed tightly as she continued to hold onto the saddle with a deathgrip. "I can do that."

" _ **Relax skittish human.**_ " Toothless tried to tell her, but his voice cracked with his own amount of fear, fear of losing his brother yet again. " _ **Stormfly will not let you fall.**_ "

" _ **Don't you wish they could understand us?**_ " Stormfly said, glaring in the wind in the direction of the edge.

Even with them going full speed it would still take four hours to get to Dragon's Edge, which were our hours Hiccup might not have. That fact made Toothless feel sick to his stomach, even he had just been a better brother to Hiccup maybe his human wouldn't be in this situation; or at least a not as deadly situation.

" _ **Everyday.**_ " Toothless said, " _ **Maybe then Hiccup wouldn't do such stupid and dangerous stunts. Maybe if I could just tell him how I feel he would stop being such a little shit and would care about what happened to him…**_ "

Stormfly nodded slowly, giving a strong push down with her wings which gave her a small boost to push her just barely passed him. " _ **He'd probably still do stupid things, he is a human after all.**_ "

" _ **Point taken.**_ "


	6. Homestead

Astrid looked down at Hiccup worriedly, thankfully they had made it back to the edge without the boy dying on them, which was a blessing on it's own. Now she was helpless to watch as this stranger took care of her best friend. She knew nothing about this real kind of medical situations and couldn't even be sure if the girl wasn't just poisoning him.

"I have to get him out of these wet clothes." The girl said, "Does he have anything here that he can wear?"

"Yeah, I'll go get some." Astrid said, itching to do something to help to help her friend. Astrid jumped to her feet and made a mad dash out of the Clubhouse and towards Hiccup's hut. Once she made it to the door she burst through it and ran up the stairs where Hiccup kept his clothes. She dug through the pile of clothes next to his bed, grabbing dry clothes pulling them close to her chest before she once again started running, this time out of the hut and back to the Clubhouse.

Astrid jogged back to the clubhouse, blushing when she saw the girl had managed to pull off Hiccup's shirt and vest and toss it aside. She had seen him topless once or twice but something about the fact that this other girl was undressing him made her her fill with jealousy. That jealousy quickly went away though when she saw what damage had been done to Hiccup.

From just below his bellybutton up to his chest was littered in thick bruises. His wrists, which had been bandaged, were now exposed to the light, showing rope burns so deep there were spots where the rope had cut into his skin. His cheek was bruised with a cut on it right above the bone, which she wouldn't be surprised if it left a scar.

"I got the clothes." She said, forcing herself to look away from Hiccup when the girl began removing his pants to see the damage done to his legs.

"Thanks, just put them down somewhere." She said, "I have to dry him off and redress his wounds before I worry about putting him back in clothes."

Astrid nodded, putting the clothes down on a nearby chair before she sat down, keeping her eyes locked on Hiccup's face. His eyes frantically moved from side to side under his eyelids; suggesting he was trapped in some type of dream. His chest, rose and fell weakly, making the blue eyed blonde feel like she was going to scream at him to wake up. She stayed quiet though, watching as the girl started with his stump; bandaging it up gently.

"W-what's your name?" Astrid asked, deciding a conversation would likely help her keep her mind off of Hiccup's state.

"Adara." The girl said quietly as she tied off that bandage and went to his other knee which was also pretty torn up with pieces of rocks imbedded into the skin, rocks which she began to pull out one by one. "And you're Astrid, correct?"

Astrid nodded hesitantly. "Y-yeah, I am." She said, giving a smile.

"I remember you. You were the only one to stand up to Dagur when we were kids." Adara said, keeping her voice down as she retrieved yet another small pebble out of the boy's pale skin.

Astrid frowned, _**How does she know that?**_ She thought to herself. "Y-yeah, I was."

Adara grabbed the roll of bandages after getting the last rock out of his skin and dropping it to the floor. She then began to wrap up his knees, tying it off once it too was safely bandaged. She then pulled a blanket over him, dropping it just above his hips. She then began to run her fingers across the bruised flesh, getting the first sign of pain from Hiccup as he whimpered and let his head flop over.

"That's a good sign." Adara said, examining his ribs yet again. "From what I can tell they're broken but they're not fatally broken." She placed her hand on his chest. "He does have a fever though, is there any way we can get that fire going?" She asked, gesturing to the fire place in the center of the room.

"Y-yeah, no problem." Astrid got up yet again, this time going to the fireplace, walking passed a very worried and exhausted Toothless who laid near the door, watching the three of them with protective eyes. "Stormfly, can you give us some flame?" She asked.

Stormfly got to her own feet and walked over, blowing a small amount of fire onto the wood and lighting it. Astrid then rubbed her hand over the Deadly Nadder's head.

"Thanks girl" She said, both her, Stormfly, and Toothless turning and facing towards the door of the Clubhouse when the sounds of other dragons could be heard, signaling that the rest of the team was back. "I'm going to go tell them what's going on, will you be alright?"

"I'll be fine." Adara smiled, "You go ahead."

Astrid nodded, walking out of the Clubhouse, Stormfly following close behind as they stood near the door, a strong and cold breeze brushing over them and making Astrid shudder. It was warmer than it had been up North but the wind was still very cold and Astrid feared it would only make Hiccup worse off if it got into the Clubhouse. She shook her head, trying to calm herself down as Snotlout, Fishlegs, and the twins ran over leaving their dragons on the landing strip.

"Is he okay?" Snotlout asked rather loudly.

"So far yeah." She said, putting her finger against his lips hoping he would take the hint to be quiet. "Adara is in there taking care of him."

"Is that what her name is?" Fishlegs asked. "Adara?"

"Yeah." Astrid said.

"Adara Lupinclaw?" Snotlout guessed making her frown.

"I don't know her last name, but maybe. Why, do you know her?"

"Yeah, we all do. She's the daughter of Froy The Friendly." Snotlout explained, "The Chief of Sonne. But what was she doing with Hiccup?" He asked mostly himself.

"We'll worry about that later for now we have stuff we need to do." Astrid said, "Fishlegs write a letter to Stoick and tell him what happened, also ask for Gothi or Gobber to come and help us here. Ruff, Tuff I need you two to gather as much food as you can and bring it to the Clubhouse incase that snow storm comes and hits here we need to be prepared and even if it doesn't it's always good to have food so Hiccup won't worry so much about it. Snotlout I need you to help Adara with Hiccup while I patrol the island and make sure everything's running smoothly and that Dagur didn't follow us." Astrid ordered.

"Why do I have to help with Hiccup?" Snotlout asked while the others went their separate ways on their dragons.

"Because you're his cousin and I'm pretty sure Stoick would be happy to know that his nephew helped take care of his son in such a bad situation." Astrid pointed out.

Snotlout thought for a second before he sighed, "Fine." He said, walking into the Clubhouse hesitantly.

Astrid climbed on the back of Stormfly, taking a hesitant glance back at the clubhouse before they took off into the air.

Toothless

Toothless yawned, struggling to keep himself awake as he watched Snotlout and 'Skittish' finished cleaning up his brother and redressed him in clean, dry clothes before piling on three layers of blankets on top of the sleeping teen. Once they were done warming him up and cleaning him off 'Skittish' sat down and shivered as she clearly tried to fight off her own amount of chills. Toothless was torn between laying with Hiccup or helping warm up the girl and after a long moment he walked over the 'Skittish' and put his head on her lap hoping that his body warmth would help warm up the small human.

" _ **It's okay, Skittish human, it will all be okay.**_ " Toothless assured, licking her hand and making her jump.

'Skittish' smiled and after a long, hesitant moment she reached over, holding out her hand as she slowly moved it to touch his head. Toothless smiled softly, not moving as he allowed her to touch his head caringly. Her hands were soft for a viking, but were also cold and trembling, likely from the fact that her clothes were still wet and chunks of which were frozen. Then there was her scent, which unlike Ruffnut who smelt like fish-oil she smelt of fruit in a way, which was strange for he had never been near a person who smelt like something fruity before. He couldn't help but wonder why she smelt so different.

After a moment 'Skittish' ran her hands over Toothless's face and to his ears before back down to his cheeks. She was still clearly scared of him but was doing all she possibly could to relax and trust the Nightfury.

"You're a very beautiful creature." She said, then shivered from the cold as he moved his head deeper into her hands.

" _ **You're a very strange human. I like you.**_ " Toothless said, " _ **So long as you don't hurt Hiccup you're alright with me.**_ " Churring softly, he opened his mouth allowing a low flame to burn in the back of his throat as he warmed her up the best possible way he could. " _ **You also remind me of a small rabbit, but that's beyond the point.**_ "

" _ **Toothless, what are you doing?**_ " Hookfang asked as he stuck his head in curiously.

" _ **Trying to warm up this human, she seems to refuse getting help from the other humans.**_ "

" _ **How strange. All humans are very strange.**_ " Hookfang grumbled softly.

" _ **What are the others up to?**_ "

" _ **The humans have split us up so that we can get things done faster, Astrid seems to think the snowstorm that hit that island might be coming this way.**_ "

" _ **It's always good to be prepared but I doubt it will.**_ " Toothless said, glancing back up at 'Skittish' who was sleeping soundly despite the occasional shiver. " _ **There, she's asleep.**_ " Toothless backed away from her slowly then walked over to Hiccup, putting his head on the bed. " _ **I'm going to stay with them could you possibly make sure that the rest of the team is safe?**_ "

" _ **So you're putting me in charge?**_ "

" _ **No, I'm just trusting you to make surat nobody gets hurt, okay? Please?**_ "

Hookfang let out a soft snicker, " _ **Sure thing, boss.**_ " He laughed, then backed out of the Clubhouse.

Toothless sighed, focusing on the rising and falling of his chest. He had never seen Hiccup look so pale, so weak, so scared. Simply the look of the teen made Toothless frown.

 _ **I'm sorry, brother.**_ Toothless thought, _**I wasn't strong enough to help you, and I'm sorry… Now you're hurt and I can't do anything to help.**_ Toothless closed his eyes, his ears twitching as they adjusted to hearing his breathing. He was going to try to sleep but he would be able to hear Hiccup breathing like this, if it stopped or changed in any way Toothless would wake up and be able to help him. That's what he hoped would happen anyways.

Astrid

The rest of the day the teens took shifts watching over Hiccup. Each shift lasted a total of two hours in the order of Astrid, Snotlout, Ruffnut, Fishlegs, and Tuffnut all the while Toothless refused to leave his side. It wasn't surprising to any of them that Toothless was so hell-bent on staying with Hiccup, infact if Astrid wasn't so exhausted from the search for the rider she would have taken all the shifts. There was also the fact that they needed to take care of Adara as well, who was sleeping in the Clubhouse so that she was close if something did happen to Hiccup she would be there to help him.

Astrid pushed her blonde hair out of her face before flipping the wet cloth over on Hiccup's forehead. Hiccup moaned as he had done dozens of times in all the shifts, and while they all wished he would wake up they finally figured that getting their hopes on him waking up any time soon. It had been twelve hours since they had gotten back to Dragon's Edge, but it would still be another fourteen hours until Stoick and the others got to the island, and who knew how much longer until they could safely guess that Hiccup's life was longer in danger from the cold or of the wounds he had received from that bastard Dagur.

 _ **If I ever see Dagur again I'm going to kill him myself.**_ She thought with a growl, upon hearing her growl Toothless picked up his head and looked at the girl, tilting his head, clearly curious about the sudden anger that came from. She gave him a timid smile, "I'm alright, I'm sorry if I scared you." She said, giving the Nightfury a loving scratch behind his ear.

Toothless huffed and put his head down for a moment before nuzzling Hiccup's ear as he did every half hour or so, the motion being a mix between comforting to both him and Hiccup, but also served as his attempt to wake the brown haired boy up.

Adara moaned, sitting up on the couch slowly making Astrid turn and face her.

"Are you alright?" Astrid asked.

"Y-yeah." She said, though her voice was raspy. "Has he woken up yet?"

"No, no, not yet." Astrid said, "Don't worry, we would have woken you up if he had." She promised, "How are you feeling?"

"Tired mostly." Adara said, "It's been a long time since I've felt safe." She admited, pulling a blanket close to her as she yawned.

"How long were you stuck with Dagur?"

"Two weeks, give or take." Adara guessed.

Astrid nodded slowly and bit her lip. The longest Hiccup had been kidnapped was for two and a half days by Alvin yet here this girl who had been held hostage by Dagur the Deranged for two weeks. She couldn't imagine how scared Adara had to have been during that time but judging by the healing bruises Astrid could see she had gotten abused very similar to what Hiccup had gotten.

"What did Dagur do to Hiccup?" Astrid finally convinced herself to ask. "I-I mean where did all these bruises come from?"

"I'm not sure but I know when Dagur got bored he would force me to fight with him, he wouldn't fight fair in the least and… I can only guess he took advantage of Hiccup's hands being tied when he got that chance." Adara said, "Hiccup probably got a hit in and Dagur got mad…"

Astrid nodded, sucking a breath in through her mouth before letting it out through her nose doing her best to calm herself down while the anger of the situation continued to dig through her to the surface.

Adara climbed off of the couch and walked over to Hiccup, touching his cheeks and forehead curiously. "He still has a fever but it doesn't seem to be getting any higher which is a good sign." She then put her head gently against his chest, listening to his beating heart and his breathing, "His heartbeat is strong, his breathing is even… He's probably going to keep sleeping until the morning." She explained, "I don't think we have much to worry about; I think he'll make it til morning no problem."

Astrid nodded slowly, figuring that she was better off listening to a medic who actually know what she was talking about, rather than just exhausting herself along with the rest of the team with the idea's of their friend dying.


	7. Facing Fears

A roar was the first thing Toothless woke up to the next morning, followed by the sound of Hiccup's father yelling.

"Where's my son?!"

"In the Clubhouse, Chief." Fishlegs said.

Toothless got to his feet, the fatigue from all the flying the day before hitting him like a wave. He was tired, every inch of him throbbing but he forced himself to walk over to the door of the Clubhouse, looking out as Stoick ran up the stairs towards him, with Gobber close behind him.

" _ **He's okay, Stoick.**_ " Toothless said, moving out of the way when Stoick and Gobber walked into the Clubhouse and went to Hiccup's bedside.

Toothless sat down, watching as Stoick touched Hiccup's forehead, feeling his temperature while Gobber checked on the rest of him. Stoick then frowned, looking at Toothless.

"What happened, Dragon?" He asked and Toothless looked down at his claw's sadly.

" _ **I wish I knew, Chief.**_ " He said, flinching slightly when Stoick gave him a loving pat on his head.

"Dad…" Rasped a voice making Toothless's ears perk up as he ran over to Hiccup's bed.

Hiccup's green eyes were beginning to peek open with a dazed look. The color was still drained out of his face but the fact that the boy was awake was enough to make Toothless feel like he could breathe again.

"Son." Stoick took his hand, "How do you feel, son?"

"Like I was kidnapped and crashed through a partially frozen river." He said with a weak and pain-filled laugh.

"What happened?" Stoick asked.

"I was out flying with Toothless when we were shot down." Hiccup began to explain, "They were trying to kill him and kidnap me, they succeeded to capture me and when I was pulled onto the boat I saw that it was Dagur... He tied me up and beat me and…" His voice cracked, "Dad, I'm sorry…"

"For what son?" Stoick asked while Gobber continued to examine the bandages and the bruises on his chest and stomach.

"Your friend Froy the Friendly, D-Dagur killed him."

Toothless heard a growl rise up into Stoick's throat.

"That's not your fault son, you have nothing to say sorry for." He promised.

"N-no you don't understand., the only one who survived is his daughter… She's here dad, A-A-Adara is here on Dragon's Edge."

Stoick turned to the door but said nothing and looked back towards Hiccup yet again. "We'll worry about that later, son. Keep telling me what happened."

Hiccup nodded timidly before he sucked in a breath and continued his story. Toothless, Stoick, and Gobber all listening intently until the end of what Hiccup could remember which happened to be while they were flying to the first island during that snowstorm.

"I see…" Stoick said and Hiccup frowned.

"Who did these bandages?" Gobber asked, "They're really well done."

"I'm not sure." Hiccup said weakly, "That's something only Astrid and the others would know." He sat up slowly, whimpering as he held his stomach.

" _ **No way.**_ " Toothless growled, putting his hand on his chest as he forced Hiccup to lay back down protectively, " _ **You're on bed-rest. Don't you**_ _ **dare**_ _**try to get up.**_ _**I WILL SIT ON YOU HUMAN!**_ "

"Don't move son, everything is taken under control. You just rest, alright?" Stoick said, "You rest and leave everything to your friends, I'm sure they have everything under control."

"I… I…" Hiccup sighed, "Okay." He said, giving up on trying to sit up.

Toothless smiled, moving his claw off Hiccup's chest before sitting back down. " _ **Of course you only listen to Stoick.**_ " He said, rolling his eyes.

Hiccup then looked over at Toothless and smiled, "It's good to see you again, Bud. I was scared I wouldn't."

" _ **You're my brother, of course you'd see me again.**_ " Toothless purred, licking Hiccup's cheek lovingly. " _ **You can't get rid of me that easily, you can try but you won't ever lose me.**_ " He nuzzled Hiccup's hand.

"Hiccup!" Fishlegs called, running in. "You're awake! Guys! He's awake!" Fishlegs yelled, sticking his head out of the door causing an army of people to run up the stairs and burst to the door.

 _ **Where's Astrid and Skittish?**_ Toothless thought when Snotlout, Ruffnut, and Tuffnut ran in but not the other two girls. Toothless nuzzled Hiccup again before he walked out of the Clubhouse and into the bright morning light, glaring against it as his eyes attempted to adjust to the differences between the inside and outside lighting.

Toothless looked around and after a short moment he saw Astrid trying to get 'Skittish' to approach Stormfly again.

"I-I-I don't know about this." 'Skittish' said, staying a good thirty feet away from the Nadder. "I mean, it's different now, it's not a life and death situation. D-d-do I really _have_ to go to her. C-Can't I just like… live with them in fear and chaos while avoiding them every step of the way?" She laughed.

"You could." Astrid said, "But you won't. Dragons aren't as scary as you're convincing yourself they are." Astrid promised, putting her head against Stormfly's neck. "They're just large, scaly, fire breathing creatures who are curious about, well, everything." She laughed. "Give it a chance, Stormfly is super sweet I promise."

" _ **You're human is pressuring Skittish.**_ " Toothless said, walking over and making Skittish jump when he got near.

"H-hi Toothless." Skittish said, backing further away.

Toothless let out a purr sound in attempt to get the girl to relax as he sat down in an even distance between Stormfly and Skittish while also not blocking them from getting to each other. He hoped that maybe his presence would help the girl relax.

"Well maybe if not Stormfly maybe you should try going over to Toothless, you two seem to get along alright." Astrid said.

" _ **Yeah, what's with that?**_ " Stormfly asked Toothless, " _ **This human is scared of everything that moves and actually ran away from me earlier when I stretched yet you can walk almost right up to her with her only flinching.**_ "

" _ **I don't know. I guess we bonded the other day in the snow. She's still scared of me though, so I can't say we're close.**_ "

"I um… I-I don't know. What if he doesn't like me? W-what if I'm just not meant to live close with dragons?" 'Skittish' asked.

" _ **She has a point.**_ " Stormfly yawned making the girl whimper and back away more. " _ **As fearful as she is any dragon having a bad day could kill her without a problem.**_ "

" _ **You're**_ _ **not**_ _**helping, we're trying to make her less afraid of us.**_ " Toothless grunted.

"Come on, Adara." Astrid said making Toothless tilt his head as he attempted to remember the girl's name for the future. "Dragon's aren't bad, and even if you don't ride them it's still a good idea to learn about them so that if you ever get in trouble with wild dragon's you'll know how to handle yourself."

Adara looked down at her foot-coverings which the humans called 'boots' before she sucked in a breath. "You're right. Gods I hate that you're right. O-okay." She bit her lip and turned towards Toothless. "W-what do I do?"

"Well Toothless already know's you." Astrid began, "Which means it'll be easy to approach him on your end, and he shouldn't' show any aggression towards you in the least. All you have to do is tell him what you're going to do and walk towards him. Hold out your hand for him to show you mean no harm and then go to him."

" _Shouldn't_ show any aggression?" Adara laughed, "That doesn't make me feel any better…"

" _ **I say you growl at her when she walks over.**_ " Barf called from the Landing Pad in the distance.

" _ **Yeah!**_ " Belch agreed.

Toothless shot them a glare and rolled his eyes before he adjusted his position. He refused to scare her any more than she already was and would sit there and do his best to help her taining go along smoothly.

"O-okay, T-T-Toothless." Adara said, hesitantly holding out her hands towards the dragon, "I'm coming over to you, o-okay?"

" _ **What a whimp.**_ " Huffed Hookfang, sitting on the Landing Pad with the two headed dragon. " _ **Not even my human was that scared coming near me.**_ "

" _ **Shut up you guys!**_ " Stormfly snapped, " _ **She's trying her best.**_ "

"You're doing good," Astrid encouraged the brunette whose hands trembled violently as she finally stepped right in front of him.

"H-hello." Adara said, putting her arms down.

" _ **Watch this.**_ " Toothless heard Barf laugh and before he could figure out what was going on a green cloud of gas filled his side view which Belch quickly lit causing an explosion. Toothless then watched as the girl's face went pale and she stumbled back with an ear splitting scream.

Adara fell to her knees, covering her ears as tears rolled down her freckle littered face. Her entire body was shaking, as she sniffled loudly.

Toothless turned towards the Zippleback with a snarl. " _ **YOU IDIOTS! LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE!**_ "

" _ **Toothless.**_ " Stormfly snapped, " _ **I'll take care of those idiots, you try and calm down the human.**_ " She said, running towards the Zippleback and Monstrous Nightmare who continued to laugh.

Toothless let out a churr as he crept towards the sobbing girl while Astrid walked over as well. Astrid touched her shoulder while Toothless put his head on her knees looking up at her. The girl flinched at the touches but either didn't try to run or was too frozen in fear to move. Toothless licked her hands which were still covering her ears.

"Adara." Astrid said, taking her hands and moving them from her ears slowly, "It's okay, it's just Barf and Belch being idiots like their riders. You're not in any danger, I promise." The blonde said.

Adara nodded vigorously but still kept her eyes tightly shut. "I-I-I need to go change H-Hiccup's bandages." She said, forcing her eyes open as she looked at Toothless with a frown. "I'm sorry." She said, gently pushing his head off her lap before moving away from Astrid as she got to her feet. After a few seconds of collecting herself Adara began to shakily walk towards the Clubhouse, her legs shaking with enough force that Toothless was sure they were going to give out on her and she was going to fall again.

"I'm going to see what I can do to help." Astrid said, petting Toothless kindly, "Go get some food, okay?"

Toothless nodded, watching as Astrid jogged to keep up with the fearful teenager. _**Those idiots…**_ He thought, walking towards his barrel of fish which had been left out for him earlier. _**She saved Hiccup yet they exploit her fears like that…**_ He took an angry bite of his fish. _**I can't blame them too much though, I haven't seen a human ever fear dragons this much. I need to figure out why she's so scared, if I can do that then maybe I can help her get over them.**_

Hiccup

It was strangely comforting for Hiccup to have his dad by his side when he woke up, but it was also worrying. His dad was the Chief of an entire village and yet he dropped everything to be with his son, it was dangerous for him to just leave the village like that if Berk was attacked while he was gone Hiccup wouldn't never be able to forgive himself.

Hiccup sucked in a breath, his lungs and ribs aching with each breath and he was honestly surprised that his body didn't creak like an old piece of wood. He hated to admit it but every inch of him hurt and the fact that he had cried didn't help the situation at all.

"Dad, you shouldn't be here." He said, "With Dagur out there it's not safe for Berk."

"Relax, son." Stoick said. "The Village is taken care of and from what Fishlegs told me in the letter it will take him at least four days for them to get to berk with their boats and three days to get here. You're my son and you're my current concern."

Hiccup nodded slowly, jumping when they heard an explosion in the distance. He instantly looked over at the table with a frown, the twins were still there meaning they weren't' doing anything stupid while he was being forced to stay laying down.

"What in Odin's name was that?" Stoick asked.

"That sounded like Barf and Belch." Ruffnut said.

"Traitors! They're blowing stuff up without us! This is mutiny!" Tuffnut said, the two scrambling to their feet and dashing out of the clubhouse.

"Great." Fishlegs sighed, "I'm going to sit in my garden with Meatlug, do you guys need anything before I go?"

"No Fishlegs, we'll be alright, you go on ahead." Stoick smiled.

Fishlegs gave a respectful nod before he too left the clubhouse leaving Hiccup alone with his father and Gobber.

"I hate this…" Hiccup said with a heavy sigh.

"Hate what, son?"

"Just sitting here and not being able to do anything!" He said.

"Well that's what happens when you're a self sacrificing muttonhead." Gobber said from the table as he made adjustments on the prosthetic leg. "You get hurt and you need to heal completely before you go out and do it all over again."

Hiccup blushed softly, "I didn't have much of a choice. If I didn't allow myself to get captured and told them Toothless was dead they could have really gone out there and kill him. He's the _last_ Nightfury. He can't be replaced if he dies."

"And you can?" Stoick asked, "Hiccup, you're my son and you're very important to not only me, but _all_ of Berk history. You're the first person to not only train, but ride, a dragon. A Nightfury on that." He put his hands carefully on Hiccup's shoulders. "You are not replaceable and don't ever think that."

Hiccup frowned, he had never thought of it like that before. He may not be the only human who can ride Dragons now but he was the first one to do it making him special. He was Hiccup; Son of Stoick the Vast the only person who had been brave-or stupid-enough to try riding a dragon. "You're right dad, I'm sorry I scared you." He said, flinching as his dad messed up his brown hair.

"It's fine, just don't do it again."

"E-e-excuse me." Said a quiet voice making the three men face the door where Adara and Astrid were standing. "I-I need to change Hiccup's bandages." Adara said, rubbing her fingers together timidly.

Hiccup nodded softly before he forced himself up in a sitting possession. "So you're the one who did them?"

Adara nodded, making Hiccup smile. She looked so shy and nervous around the adults, despite the fact that she had known both Gobber and Stoick since she was a kid she was still painfully nervous about being around them. She crossed the room, keeping her eyes cast to the floor as she did so, making it to Hiccup's bedside.

"It's good to see you again, Adara." Stoick said, "It has been a very long time."

"I-Indeed it has, Uncle Stoick." She said, squeaking as Stoick pulled her into a hug.

"Thank you for taking care of my son, I know he's a bit of a muttonhead sometimes but he means well. I'm glad you were there to help take care of him."

"O-of course." Adara smiled, "But he saved me much more than I saved him."

"Good to hear." Stoick said, letting her go and watching as she walked over to Hiccup, unwrapping his bandages on his arms.

They were bruised and bloody and honestly it made Hiccup nauseous to look at it, but nothing like the nausea he felt when she unwrapped his stump. It was very feeling to how he felt when he first saw that his leg was missing. The stump had what looked like a burn that had been formed by the cold, infact it almost looked like the beginnings of frostbite but not nearly as grotesque and as far as he could tell he wasn't going to have to worry about losing anymore of it. She then cleaned up and cared for his other leg which looked like a Gronkle had hit it with a lava blast. It was bruised and black with dried blood over it as well as small holes that made him suspect that rocks had once been embedded within his flesh.

He now understood why Toothless and nobody wanted him moving around and pushing himself. If this is what he looked like cleaned up he couldn't imagine what he had looked like before. He knew that he had scared them, he had scared them to the point that they thought he was going to die. Taking it easy was the least he could do.


	8. Mental Wounds and Physical Scars

Two days later Hiccup was back on his feet, and after only a half hour after that Gobber and Stoick got ready to leave and head back to Berk to continue their jobs where they were really needed. Sure it tore Hiccup apart to say goodbye to his father, even if they were only a day's flight away on Berk, he always missed his dad.

"Come and visit soon, son." Stoick said, "Berk will always be your home, even if you physically live here. Besides, I miss you." He hugged Hiccup tight enough where it was just beginning to hurt but nothing compared to the pain he had been in for the past few days. "We all miss you."

"I will dad." Hiccup smiled, "And don't be afraid to come here to Dragons Edge, you're always welcome here. You and Gobber both." Hiccup looked at Gobber who was talking to Adara with a smile, handing her a bag he had made especially for her.

Unlike most satchels the bag he had made for her had two straps and multiple pockets throughout it to hold multiple things at once. He also handed her a small book of medical herbs for her to go through whenever she wanted, but even then he seemed hesitant to leave her.

"Are you _sure_ you don't want to come back to Berk with us?" Gobber asked.

"I'm sure." Adara laughed, "I'm more useful here than anywhere else. Besides, these guys don't have a real medic, if one of these guys get seriously hurt and you're not there to help don't you think it'd be better if I was?"

Gobber smiled, "Yes, yes, I know we all worry about you, just as we worry about the rest of the kids on this island."

"Don't worry, Gobber." Hiccup said, "We'll watch eachothers backs. We're a team and nothing will change that, especially not somebody like Dagur."

"Glad to hear it, Lad." He sucked in a breath, "Alright then I'll leave you guys too it." He said, getting on the back of Stoick's Rumblehorn while the Chief pulled Adara into a hug.

"Take care of my boy, alright? He's all I've got left."

"Sure thing, Stoick." She smiled, hugging him back.

The two then let each other go before Stoick climbed onto Skullcrusher with his friend and after a few more moments they were in the air, flying away from dragons edge and towards Berk which would take a full day's flight.

"Hiccup, we're going to show Adara where the hot spring is and spend the day there." Astrid said.

"We?" Snotlout purred, "Does that mean I get to come too?"

"Ew." Both Ruffnut and Astrid said.

"No, you're not going anywhere." Hiccup growled protectively.

"Yeah, it'll just be us girls." Ruffnut said, "Even Meatlug and Stormfly are coming."

"Meatlug?" Fishlegs turned to face his dragon who smiled happily despite the look of betrayal on his face.

"Yep." Astrid smiled, "Ruff is going to ride her up and I'm taking Adara up on Stormfly."

"Great, more riding dragons." Adara laughed weakly.

"What do we do if we're attacked?!" Tuffnut said, surprisingly thinking of something the others hadn't thought of.

"Then Fishlegs can be your other half. You boys can handle a day alone, can't you?" Ruff laughed as she climbed on the back of Meatlug while Adara very shakily climbed onto Stormfly.

"The girls are right." Hiccup said, "They can have a girls day now and then, this just means we can do boy things." He said.

"I'm not sure you count as a boy, Hiccup." Snotlout laughed, getting a glare from his older cousin.

"Okay, you girls have fun." Fishlegs said, putting his head against Meatlug. "Keep an eye on them, alright girl?"

Meatlug let out a happy sound as she agreed to do just that and few moments later the girls also vanished from sight, heading towards the Hot Springs which rested at the bottom of Khione Cliffs, the snow covered mountain on the North side of Dragon's Edge.

"So what do we wanna do?" Tuffnut asked, "Ooh, can we blow stuff up?!"

HIccup thought for a moment then smiled, "You know, Tuff, that's not a bad idea!"

Tuffnut laughed, almost sounding offended, "Of course it isn't, _I_ thought of it after all."

"Wait, we're going to blow things up? Really?" Fishlegs said, honestly surprised.

"Yeah, let's face it none of us have ever really worked with another person's dragon before. So let's go to the South Shore, set up some targets and see what kind of damage we can do with a dragon that's not our own." Hiccup said, mounting on Toothless the others following his example, even Fishlegs who after some struggling managed to get onto Barf without falling. "Come on bud." He said, rubbing Toothless's neck as they shot into the air and made their way towards the South Beach.

Ten minutes later they had set up the targets and were all sitting on the South Beach, which unlike the North side of the island where the girls were going typically reached almost 35 degrees Celsius. Honestly Hiccup loved it here, and so did Toothless for the warmth didn't agitate their prosthetics like the cold did and they were able to do whatever they wanted here without being in pain from cold temperatures.

Hiccup climbed off of Toothless, smiling at his dragon softly. When Toothless gave him a curious churr. "Okay, Tuff, I can't believe i'm going to say this but-." Hiccup sighed, "You'll be with Toothless for this, you have the least amount of experience on him so it's good that you learn. But you do anything to hurt him and I can't say what he will do."

"Yes!" Tuff said happily jumping off Belch and running to Toothless who gave Hiccup a look that clearly said; _**There will be consequences.**_

"Now, Fishlegs and Snotlout you guys will be with Barf and Belch, you guys could use some practice working together and with a different dragon. And I'll be with Hookfang." He said, the Monstrous Nightmare perking up when he heard his name.

"Great." Snotlout said, both him and Fishlegs being the opposite of excited for this training exercise whether or not it was because they would be working together or working with the rebellious two-headed dragon was unclear.

"Come on guys." Hiccup said, giving Hookfang a smile as he climbed on the back, adjusting to the unfamiliar seat under him. "It's gonna be fun, besides you can't say blowing things up isn't fun."

"Blowing things up is always fun!" Tuff said, "Especially when it's stuff you're not supposed to be blowing up."

"Well let's focus on blowing up the targets first." Fishlegs said, watching as a grumpy Snotlout climbed onto Belch's saddle, both gasping when the dragon sat up.

"You better not hurt my dragon, Hiccup." Snotlout warned as they finally got the two headed Dragon in the air.

"I won't." Hiccup said, rolling his eyes at the thought of hurting any dragon. "Come on Hookfang, let's go up."

Hookfang let out a puff of air, which came out as steam through his nose. The large hotheaded dragon then flew into the air before a very clumsily ridden Toothless came into the air, stumbling slightly given the fact that Tuffnut could hardly control his excitement and his foot flopped around on the control stirrup.

"Hey, it's better than my dad, right?" Hiccup pointed out to the slightly angry Nightfury who seemed to roll his eyes and look away from him. "That's what I thought."

Astrid

Astrid glanced back at Adara who was clinging tightly to her, her eyes closed, and her body trembling at the cold and the fear she must have been experiencing. It was frustrating that she hadn't made _any_ progress with the fearful girl since the incident with Barf and Belch. Infact the only time she got near a dragon was if somebody got on it before she did almost like she was afraid of being alone with any of the dragons. Even Meatlug who despite being a very hyperactive and large dragon was very friendly and hadn't made the slightest threatening move to the girl.

 _ **There has to be something deeper to her fear.**_ Astrid thought, _**Nobody is this afraid of dragons without a reason.**_

"There it is!" Ruff said happily, pointing to the ground at a relatively large body of water near the mouth of a cave, it was steaming as it naturally did which is how they found it in the first place after mistaking it for a fire. "You're going to love this, Adara."

"I'll love it more when I'm on the ground." Adara shouted over the wind, continuing to cling to the blonde.

Astrid smiled, "Let's go down, Stormfly." She told her dragon who roared and did as she was told, landing a good fifteen feet away from the water's edge. Astrid then slid off of her faithful dragon before helping the nervous teenager down and to her feet.

By the time they were both down Ruffnut had already stripped off her clothes and plunged into the water with a celebratory cheer.

"This is the only type of bath she'll take." Astrid whispered to Adara who smiled nervously and nodded.

Astrid walked over to the edge of the Hot Spring, pulling off her armor putting it on a rock before she pulled off her skirt, her leggings, then her shirt. Once she was completely stripped off all clothing and climbed into the water, moaning happily as the warm water engulfed her body warming her up compared to what she was feeling outside of the hot water.

"Come on in." Ruff smiled to the still timid girl, "The water's great." She said, sinking down into the water until it brushed just above her upper lip.

Adara hesitated for a moment longer before she sucked in a breath and copied what the other two girls had done, stripping off her clothes before climbing into the water. Clearly nervous on slipping Adara turned, going in with her back towards the other which gave Astrid a perfect view of her back, and the reason behind the girls fear of dragons came to the light.

Toothless

Toothless sighed, continuing to keep a close eye on Hiccup and Hookfang, making sure that the Monstrous nightmare didn't do anything to harm his brother. He doubted Hookfang could possibly be that stupid but he still refused to take the chance, not when Hiccup could still be in danger. Not to mention the fact that Toothless refused to believe Hiccup was physically 'alright' until his bruises healed and Mentally 'alright' until the nightmare's stopped waking him up in the middle of the night.

"Toothless! Fire!" Tuffnut called, reminding him of yet another thing he had to deal with. Tuffnut seemed to often forget that he could only do 6 shots, and even though he ran out of shots a long time ago he continued to try and make him fire.

Toothless rolled his eyes softly before landing on the ground causing the obnoxious teen to whine.

"I think that's enough for today." Hiccup said, landing on the ground as well and ordering down the Zippleback with hand signals.

They had been flying around for half an hour and while Fishlegs and Snotlout seemed to understand the dragon more they still argued more than the twins. Tuffnut seemed to be just as much of a muttonhead as he had been all that time ago and Hiccup, well Hiccup had always been good with any dragons so him getting along with Hookfang was honestly no surprise to any of them, especially not Toothless.

"So what now, genius?" Snotlout said, climbing off of Belch before going over to Hiccup and shoving him off of the monstrous Nightmare, earning a snarl from Toothless as he almost jumped into the attack.

Hiccup grumbled something before dusting himself off and getting to his feet. "Well let's just go do our own thing, and _nobody_ go near the hot springs. If I hear from the girls that anybody was over there there will be consequences." He threatened.

"Boo." Tuffnut said, climbing off of Toothless before he walked over to his Zippleback. "I wanted to blow more things up."

"You can, just nowhere near the girls or I'll kick your ass." Hiccup threatened.

"You're no fun." Tuffnut said getting a not from Snotlout as the two then went their separate ways.

"Wanna ride back?" Hiccup asked Fishlegs.

"No thanks." Fishlegs smiled, "I'm going to walk back, try and gather some rocks for Meatlug."

"Okay." Hiccup climbed onto Toothless and Toothless could tell just by the hiss of pain he made that the pain radiating through his legs and his ribs only seemed to have gotten more agitated by flying around on a large and clumsy dragon.

" _ **I need to sit on you, don't I? You need to rest."**_ Toothless grumbled, making Hiccup pat his neck.

"I know, bud… I'm gonna rest, I promise."

" _ **Wait, you are? Huh… maybe you're not as stupid as you pretend to be."**_

Toothless shot into the air as they then made their way towards the hut the two of them shared, upon getting there sat on the ground and watched as Hiccup hesitantly got off of Toothless's back and limped into the house. Toothless frowned, following his brother into the house and watching Hiccup as he went through the house, up the stairs and into his bed with a moan of pain.

Toothless walked over to Hiccup's bed putting his head his brothers thigh. " _ **Are you alright?**_ " He asked, wanting nothing more than to be able to actually communicate with Hiccup. " _ **Do you need anything?**_ "

"It's okay, Bud." Hiccup said, petting his neck. "I just have to sleep for a little while, alright?"

Toothless nodded slowly, licking his hand before he got back up and exited the room, knowing that if Hiccup really needed him he would call for him, he would just be a distraction if he stayed there while Hiccup was trying to sleep and rest for once.

" _ **I know he said he'll be alright but I'm worried about him. Maybe I should go get Adara and have her check on him just to be safe…**_ " Toothless said under his breath before he dashed across bridges before making his way North where the girls had headed. " _ **I just hope I'm being paranoid and he'll actually be alright.**_ "

Astrid

"How do you always smell so good?" Ruff asked Adara.

"Me? Oh, the village elder where I come from made a special soap for hair." Adara explained, running her fingers through her short brown hair, "So I have it in my hair and normal soap everywhere else. If you want I can make you some, she taught me the recipe."

"Really? How did you have so much time on your hand?" Astrid asked, "Aren't you a Chief's daughter? Weren't you always busy training to be the next chief?" She instantly regretted asking the question upon seeing the expression on her face change.

"No, My dad decided females didn't need to lead a village and that they have other things that they're better for than being a leader. So I spent most of my time with the elder and she taught me everything I need to know. Medicine, how to cook, how to clean, and how to make hair soap." Adara said, "Being the only child of a chief though I was really protected, even more so seeing how I was a girl and the entire village seemed to think girls were weak so… I can't fight very well and all the fighting I do know how to do I taught myself."

"Is that how you got that scar?" Astrid asked and Adara tensed up, sinking into the water a little. "Training on your own?"

"N-no the scar was an accident. I fell when I was younger." She said, clearly lying.

 _ **Why is she lying?**_ Astrid thought, _**That scar is clearly made from a dragon but why wouldn't she just say that?!**_

Adara smiled and rubbed her arms softly cleaning the dirt off of the skin. It was quiet for a long moment between the three until Adara let out a blood-curdling scream as she whipped around. Standing there was Toothless with his tongue partially stuck out of his mouth as he just looked at the three human girls, his face focused specifically on Adara.

"T-T-Toothless, you scared me." She said with a laugh.

"Is something wrong Toothless?" Astrid asked, going to the edge of the water looking at the dragon.

Toothless let out a churr sound before looking in the direction of Edge.

"Is it Hiccup?" Adara asked, jumping when he looked back at her and churred once again.

"We should go back." Astrid said, as she climbed out, shivering as she slipped back into her clothes.

"Aw man~" Whined Ruffnut but did as Astrid said, climbing out and getting dressed. "We need to do this again, it's so nice not having any of the boys here to mess things up." She said.

Adara simply hummed in agreement as she shakily climbed out, facing away from the others as she too got dressed, giving Astrid another look at the scar. She looked at it for a long moment before she turned and saw that Toothless was also eyeing the scar, a look of guilt on his face making Astrid frown.

 _ **That scar… I'm not sure but… that looks like something that would come from a Razorwhips tail.**_

"Let's go." Adara said, once she got dressed and slipped her bag onto her back, whimpering as Toothless nudged her hand.

"Ride with Toothless back, even on foot his faster than Stormfly and Meatlug." Astrid said, "We'll meet you back at the village."

The look on Adara's face clearly said, _**Do I have to?**_ But instead of saying that out loud she nodded slowly and after a moment of convincing herself she walked over to Toothless, climbing on his back and gripping the saddle tightly. "A-alright, I'll see you guys there." She said, yelping fearfully when Toothless took off running towards the Edge.

"That scar came from a dragon, didn't it?" Ruffnut said, climbing on Meatlug with a careful smile.

"Yeah, I don't know what Dragon but that's definitely a dragon scar."

Astrid climbed onto Stormfly, her and Ruffnut taking off into the sky and flying towards the edge, watching as Toothless and Adara dodged and weaved through trees. It was funny to see somebody small like Hiccup with brown hair riding on the dragon. Especially when on second glance it was clear that it wasn't Hiccup. She guessed if anybody were to see her riding the Nightfury most people wouldn't realize it wasn't Hiccup until they were face to face with her.

"Let's go Stormfly!" She said while her Deadly Nadder began to pour on the speed.


	9. Sharpshot To The Heart

Hiccup moaned and opened his eyes slowly, frowning when he felt a hand touching his head and a worried purr coming frown down by his feet. He looked up and saw Adara looking at Toothless.

"There's nothing to worry about, Toothless." She said, "He's just had a long day and his body isn't used to moving this much with so many injuries still trying to heal." She explained, "Just let him sleep and he'll be fine in a few more days."

Hiccup smiled softly, but then tensed up when a gust of wind blew outside, bringing cold air through the open window above his head. The wind was typically blowing the opposite way, which is why Hiccup put his window where he did which made him suspect the wind was not the normal type of wind they were used to. The fact that Toothless snarled at the wind made him only suspect that even more.

He was about to ask Toothless what was wrong but Adara beat him to it.

"Toothless, what's wrong?"

Toothless let out a frustrated huff before he laid to the left of Hiccup's bed, facing the window.

"It's probably just that storm Astrid was talking about." Adara assured, then blushed when she made eye-contact with Hiccup. "O-oh, you're awake, I'm sorry I didn't know that you-."

"It's fine, I just woke up." He said, "What are you doing back so early?" He asked.

"Toothless was worried about you." She explained, "Came looking for us so that I could come check on you. Scared the crap out of us when he showed up."

Hiccup laughed, then winced at the movement on his lungs. "Sorry about that, why don't you go back and have fun?"

"No no." She said, grabbing the blanket off his bed and pulling it onto him before she sat at the foot of his bed. "It's fine, besides… I… I need to talk to you." She said, making Hiccup frown.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing is _wrong_ exactly… I just…" She sucked in a breath, "Is there anybody else on the island?"

"What?" Hiccup asked. "No, at least not that I know of. There's just Astrid, The twins, Fishlegs, Snotlout, you and I here."

"What about Dragons? Any others besides the ones I've met?"

Hiccup shook his head, "No, you've met the Night Terrors and their the only ones here, now what's wrong?" He asked again, the way she was acting made him feel more and more nervous. "Did you see something?"

"No no I didn't see anything but while we were at the Hotsprings I… I had this feeling I was being watched by unfamiliar eyes. I felt like we were all being hunted. I'm probably just being Paranoid… I'm sorry." She got up to leave but was stopped when Hiccup put his leg on her thighs, stopping her.

"No, if you have a bad feeling like that you let either me or Astrid know, alright? Better be safe than sorry. I'll have Astrid and the others go on Patrol first thing in the morning, but until then why don't you stay here, you shouldn't be alone in the Clubhouse tonight. The rest of us have dragons to watch us but with you being alone it's too risky for you to stay there unguarded."

Adara nodded, watching curiously as the older teen sat up and went to get out of bed. "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to sleep on the couch, you can have my bed."

Adara laughed, "No way." She said, forcing him to lay down again. "Stay." She said, "I'll sleep on the couch. You're the one who is hurt and you need to sleep on a real bed in order to heal properly."

Hiccup nodded slowly, watching as she crossed the room to the couch on the other end. She then laid down and pulled the blanket over herself, laying there for a moment before looking back at him.

 _ **What could have been watching them?**_ Hiccup thought, putting his arms behind his head, _**Was it Dagur and his men? Or Viggo?**_ The thought of Viggo being on the island made him sicker than the idea of being Dagur on Dragon's edge. _**I'll check it out first thing in the morning with Toothless. If there is somebody on the island we'll know about it and hopefully put a stop to whatever it is before somebody gets hurt.**_

"You know, I was supposed to be older than you." Adara said suddenly, catching his attention.

"What?"

"Yeah. My dad told me our mom's were pregnant at the same time and that because they were friends when they were kids they wanted us to be friends, if not siblings with different parents. But then you were born early, _really_ early. They thought you were going to die but two months later I was born and you will still holding strong." Adara yawned, and curled into a tighter ball. "Then your mom vanished… and my mom died… instead of seeing each other every month like our mothers wanted us to it ended up that we only got to see each other once a year when the treaty was signed. Without our Mom's to take us to see each other and our father's being too busy it just didn't happen…"

 _ **Dad never told me all that… then again he hardly tells me anything.**_ Hiccup thought sadly. "The other day." Hiccup said, "When you told me that you thought of me as a brother… I never answered you." He said, "I just didn't know what to think, I mean I've never been told that by anybody before and actually." He laughed, "Before I got to know Astrid I really had a thing for you." He said, smiling when he heard Adara laugh.

"Really? _You_ had a crush on _me_?"

Hiccup laughed, "I did yeah, why is that so funny?"

Adara looked up at the ceiling, "It just is. What do you think of me now?"

"I think you're very pretty but I agree with you, I can't think of you as anything more than a little sister."

"Good, that saves us both heartbreak." She said, "You and Astrid are cute, are you guys dating?"

"Huh?" Hiccup felt his face heat up and could hear Toothless snicker from his bedside. "N-no we're just friends. I mean we kissed once or twice but nothing more than that. I think she just feels bad for me but nothingbut nothing more than a friend."

"That's too bad, you guys should date. Maybe try asking her out, take her out on a picnic or something." Her voice was becoming weaker, making him suspect she was drifting to sleep. "The sooner the better, ya'know?"

"Yeah," Hiccup smiled, letting his eyes drift shut again, "I know."

" _ **GIVE IT UP HICCUP!"**_ Dagur's voice echoed through his dreams, " _ **I have your friends! I've killed your dragon! You're all alone! You've failed so just give yourself up!"**_

" _ **Don't do it Hiccup!"**_ Adara's voice called.

" _ **We're not worth it!"**_ Astrid yelled.

" _ **WILL YOU SHUT THEM UP!"**_ Dagur snapped, " _ **Times running out Hiccup, make your choice!"**_

Hiccup closed his eyes tightly. He was scared, he didn't know what to chose. He looked at the other side of the clearing where Toothless was laying lifelessly, the rise and fall of his chest having stopped almost ten minutes ago. He knew that if he went out there he would die, but he also knew that if he didn't go out there his friends would die.

" _ **It's the job of the Chief to protect his people…"**_ Hiccup said, for what felt like the millionth time.

" _ **Toss the girl overboard."**_ Dagur said, causing Hiccup's heart to stop as he he loked around the edge of a tree to face the attacker, but before he could see which one of the girls was screaming a real world scream snapped him out of his dreams.

Hiccup sat up in his bed with a gasp as he looked around his room. The room was afire with the morning light shining in from outside, which provided enough light to show that Adara was already gone and so was Toothless.

Yet another scream from outside startled him and made him hop out of bed and run out of the door, looking around Dragon's Edge until he saw who was making the noise. It was Adara, who was laughing and screaming as Ruffnut chased her around outside with a fish in her hand.

Hiccup smiled, he was glad to see that the girl was opening up to somebody besides him, even if Ruffnut wasn't exactly the type of example he wanted Adara following he decided that it was better for her to be hanging out with Ruffnut instead of Tuffnut and Snotlout.

"Hey, Hiccup." Astrid said, coming over to him. "How do you feel? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Hiccup said, "A bit of a headache but nothing I can't handle. Listen, I have a weird question, did you feel anything off at the Hotsprings?"

"Off?"

"Yeah, like any bad feelings?"

Astrid shook her head, "No, nothing. Why?"

"Adara said she felt like she was being watched. Can you do me a favor and patrol the island? I want to make sure everything is alright before I sent Snotlout out fishing."

Astrid nodded, "Yeah, no problem." She smiled, giving Hiccup a gentle punch in the shoulder. "What are you going to do?"

"Well it seems like Adara is fine around dragons as long as she's with somebody else, so I was thinking maybe if I go with her I can get her to get near some dragons. Maybe start with Sharpshot, Iggy, Pain, Sneaky, Butt and Head that maybe she would be able to face fears of bigger dragons."

"I see, start small then go bigger. Smart. Better than trying to get her on Hookfang." She said, rubbing the back of her neck. "I should probably just leave training people to work with Dragons to the same person who taught Dragons to live alongside people."

"Probably a good idea, plus it gives me something to do while I'm healing, because honestly I'm beginning to think Toothless is going to lay on me if I keep pushing myself."

"That's what happens when you make us all worry." She said, patting his back before heading off to the landing strip where Stormfly was enjoying her breakfast.

After a while Adara came over, out of breath but smiling. "Hi. Sorry, we didn't wake you up, did we?"

"No I was already awake." Hiccup lied with a smile. "How did you sleep?"

"Good, oh! Snotlout wanted me tell you that the storm we were worried about hitting us has changed direction, we might get a little cold but it won't hit us." Adara smiled.

"Good to hear." Hiccup smiled, "Speaking of which." He looked around slowly, seeing Ruff and Tuff talking by their dragon, Fishleg's was by Meatlug giving her a bath, and the one person he couldn't see was Snotlout. "Where is my idiotic cousin?"

"I don't know, after he told me that the storm was going to miss us he took off, I haven't seen him in almost an hour."

It wasn't unusual for Snotlout to be gone, especially not when he had Hookfang with him but Hiccup had a strange feeling. He shook it off the best he could then looked down at the girl who was a good two inches shorter than he was.

"How would you feel about training with me for a little while?" He asked with a smile.

"What?" Adara asked with a shocked look on her face. "A-a-a-are you sure?"

"Course I'm sure, I wouldn't offer unless I was." He pointed out with a laugh.

Adara hesitated and after a moment she nodded. "Yeah, okay."

"Good, let's go." Hiccup said, leading her to the Dragon Training Dome where they kept the five Terrible Terrors he and the other riders trained three years ago. "These are Terrible Terrors." He decided to explain. "They're the least dangerous Dragon that we've ever found and these ones specifially are really sweet. We've already trained them so they're really easy. We'll start with Sharpshot, he's the one I trained."

Adara nodded slightly in understanding. "Okay, w-what do I do?" She asked, still sounding terrified.

"Well the first thing to training a dragon is to form a trust." He said, picking up a fish and handing it to her before whistling and holding out his arm. Sharpshot flew over, landing on it before looking at Adara with a tilt of his head and a lick of his lips. "For Terrible Terrors and many other dragons the quickest way to earn their trust is through their stomachs. They're almost always hungry."

Adara nodded, holding the fish out for the dragon who quickly took it and took it in his mouth, not giving it even a few bites before he simply swallowed it. He then hopped over and sat on her shoulder gripping the top of her suit with her claws. She was tense and clearly afraid of the situation but she didn't argue with the movement when she saw the smile on Hiccup's face.

"It's okay." He said, "It's his way of saying he likes you." Hiccup assured. "Now, he trusts you all you have to do is trust him."

"T-trust him?"

"Yes." Hiccup said, "He won't hurt you, infact the only one who might is the purple one, Pain, he's a bit of a biter."

Adara sucked in a breath, "Okay." She said, looking at her shoulder before she smiled. "You are kinda cute…" She said, a squawk coming from the Terrible Terror as a reply, telling her that he understood. "Okay, Sharpshot." She lifted her arm up, the glint of her armor-covered forearm catching the dragon's attention. "Can you go down there?"

Sharpshot hesitated for a moment before jumping down, landing on her forearm, the claws clicking against the metal making her giggle and look at Hiccup.

"It's working." She said, sounding almost out of breath she was so excited.

"Yes it is. Now the next step is to make a bond." He said, looking over at Toothless who tilted his head upon the eye contact. He then held out his hand which Toothless walked over, putting his head against it. "You'll be bonded for life if he trusts you enough to put his head in your hand."

She nodded slowly, holding out her other hand, which the Terrible Terror examined for a moment then put his head against it. She looked at Hiccup again, her eyes bright and full of excitement which just proved to Hiccup that the girl was one step closer to getting over her fear of dragons.

"Good job, sis." He said, messing up her hair and making her giggle. "Your dad would be proud, I know I am."

She put her arm down, causing the Terror to run off before she then wrapped her arms around Hiccup digging her nails into the back of his shirt as she tried to deepen the hug. She was laughing, something which rarely happened and he got to hear it two times in a day.

Hiccup looked at Toothless who seemed to be smiling and saying; _**You did good, You both did good.**_


	10. Trapped

"Hiccup!" Fishlegs yelled as he ran to the training arena. "Adara!"

"Woah woah, what is it Fishlegs?" Hiccup asked, letting Adara go as they turned to face the shaken up viking.

"It's Snotlout, something's wrong!"

Hiccup didn't hesitate as he grabbed Adara's hand, pulling her along as the two made their way to the Clubhouse where a very worried looking Hookfang sat outside. Toothless was right behind them, looking around worriedly as if expecting something to jump out and attack them.

He ran into the Clubhouse, both he and Adara stopping when they saw the state of Snotlout. His skin was red and covered with sweat and blisters.

"Adara." He said, not even fully getting her name out before the girl was at her side, feeling his head.

"He has a fever." She said, handing Hiccup the book Dagur gave her, which as well as listing plants that could be used as herbs also listed illnesses that could be caused by a plant or poison.

Hiccup nodded, understanding what she wanted to him to do as he began flipping through the book.

"The blisters are not infected and seem to be just full of excess water."

Once again Hiccup began flipping.

"Red skin and is sweet smelling."

Hiccup flipped yet again and frowned. "Adara, I found it." He said, causing not only her but the twins as well to look over at him. She gently took the book and began reading.

" _Silver Hook Jippers. These plants are toxic to humans upon physical contact with their petals. This plant will kill any human within twenty-four hours. In the first two hours the skin will turn red and blotchy with blisters. Hours three through eight will be full of fever induced hallucinations, then hours eight through sixteen will be violent vomiting then the remaining hours of the life will be spent in a sleep-like state until they finally die. Anybody who makes it passed twenty-four hours will die before twenty-six._ " Adara looked at Hiccup who felt like he was going to be sick.

"Is there a cure?" Fishlegs asked.

"Um…" She read further before she nodded, "Yes! Yes here it is okay, _The only cure for Silver Hook Jippers are Purple Poxie Moss. Purple Poxie Moss is…_ " She hesitated before reading again, a bit sadder this time, " _Is extremely rare and is only found where boiling water meets frozen water and rock. If this plant is found it needs to be frozen and crushed into a powder then inhaled by the one affected by the Silver Hook Jippers before the twenty-th hour for any chance of survival._ "

Hiccup felt sick, sick and extremely dizzy. His cousin only had twenty-four hours to live and judging by the symptoms listed he had already been sick for at least two hours. He needed to think of something.

"Ruff, Tuff go find Astrid, she's on Patrol." He ordered and the twins saluted before running off, "Fishlegs, write the village and tell them what's going on tell Spitelout to come here just in case he doesn't make it."

"Okay." Fishlegs said, running out as well.

"Adara." Hiccup turned to his friend, "What do you think it meant 'Where boiling water meets frozen water and rock'?"

Adara thought for a moment, "I't probably talking about a place like… The hot spring!" She said, turning excitedly to Hiccup. "I remember seeing purple moss on top of the mouth of the cave near the hot spring! If that's the Purple Poxie Moss then all we have to do is go up there and get some."

"So there's a chance we can-"

"-Save him, I think so." Adara smiled, "I'll go get some." She said, grabbing her bag.

"I'm coming with you, it'll take three hours for you to get up there on foot. We'll take Toothless."

While fear sparked behind the girl's green eyes she nodded anyways, "Okay." She and Hiccup climbed on Toothless before they took off into the sky, heading towards the Hotspring, both hoping that they would be able to make it there and back without any trouble.

Astrid

Astrid looked around the island as she flew through the air, making sure to swing close to the water as well up high in the air looking all around for any signs of danger. She could see the snowstorm in the distance, the storm which Snotlout had told them was beginning to head away from them still made her a bit nervous but the longer she watched it the more it looked like it was infact going to miss them by a few miles.

"Astrid!" Tuffnut yelled, startling the blonde as she turned to face two of the other riders, who were flying full speed towards her.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Astrid asked.

"Hiccup told us to get you, Snotlout's sick."

"What?" Astrid asked curiously at Ruffnut's answer. "Poisoned by what?"

"We'll explain on the way, but we need to get back to the Edge." Ruff said, and Astrid nodded, allowing herself to be lead back to the Edge.

 _ **This can't be happening, we just got Hiccup back and now Snotlout is sick?! What in Odin's name is going on here!?**_

Toothless

Toothless landed on the ground, the snow crunching under his feet. He sniffed the air with a growl, there was something different about the scent of the air since yesterday but he couldn't worry about that too much. Hiccup climbed off his back helping Adara off of him and onto their feet. It was clear by the little limp Hiccup gave under his weight caught made Toothless suspect that his leg was already beginning to hurt him thanks to the cold air around him, he guessed that they only had about an hour to came what they needed before the joints in his leg completely froze up and wouldn't be able to support his weight any longer.

Toothless watched as the two humans walked over to the hotsprings, looking around for a moment before following the hot water stream that fed the spring into the cave. Toothless sniffed softly, a familiar and chilling scent filling his nose when he walked a foot in.

" _ **Guys, we shouldn't be here. The hot spring is one thing but the cave is another thing.**_ " Toothless tried to tell the two humans, but thanks to fact that they didn't understand dragon they continued in. " _ **Hiccup!**_ "

"Hold on, Bud, we'll get the moss and get out of here." Hiccup said.

"I found it!" Adara said, pointing to the overhang of the cave. She then stood on her tip-toes beginning to pull the purple moss off the top of the cave. "I'm going to grab as much as I can then we'll go and figure out how we're going to get Snotlout taken care of." She promised.

" _ **Get. Out.**_ " Growled a quiet voice that caught Toothless attention as he turned around seeing nothing but the snow and the rocks that rested outside of the cave. That was until he saw two, almost glowing, purple eyes staring at him from the snow. " _ **You're trespassing.**_ " The female voice said, moving slightly.

Toothless growled protectively, when he saw the full shape of the dragon. It was a Woolly Howl, a dragon that lived in the snowy area's which allowed him to camouflage herself almost flawlessly. Woolly Howl's were smaller than most dragons, but was still bigger than him " _ **Hiccup.**_ " He said again, this time the growl he caught Hiccup's attention.

"What is it, Bud?" Hiccup asked, turning and patting Toothless's neck.

Toothless sucked in a breath, shooting out a ball of energy into the snow, blasting right next to the Woolly Howl's foot. Causing it to snarl angrily.

"Adara." Hiccup said, the sound of his voice confirmed that he had seen and heard the dragon. "We need to go."

"Five more minutes. We don't know how much it'll take and I don't want to have to come back for a second trip." She mumbled, crawling deeper into the cave which seemed to upset the wild dragon even more.

" _ **GET OUT**_!" She yelled, running at Hiccup and Toothless.

On instinct Toothless jumped out of the way, wrapping Hiccup in his wings as the two tumbled out of the cave. He then shot a blast of energy, not realizing exactly what he had done until Hiccup yelled, and his shot hit the side of the cave. The next seconds the followed made Hiccup shrink back with a single thought; _**What did I just do?!**_

The moment that the sot left his mouth it made contact with the rock inside of the cave. The rock, being mostly frozen shattered, causing Adara to let out a scared cry as the ceiling collapsed. The screams then went silently as he and Hiccup both sat there in shock.

"Adara!" Hiccup yelled once the shock wore off. He ran to the now sealed off entrance, digging as much of the rocks away as he could.

" _ **I can blast it away!**_ " Toothless said, readying another breath in order to fire.

"No Toothless!" Hiccup said, "The cave is unstable, another shot could bring the rest of it crashing down… We need help."

" _Hiccup!_ " A scared and muffled voice came from inside the cave.

"Adara! Adara are you alright?"

" _I'm fine, Hiccup! Just… Just get me out of here._ "

"Where is the dragon?"

" _It took off when the roof collapsed, I'm all alone._ "

"Took off? Took off where?"

" _The cave is pretty deep and goes on for a while. I'm going to try and follow it. There has to be another way out of here and I plan to find it._ "

"No no no, you stay put." Hiccup said.

" _And what wait for you to dig me out? Snotlout doesn't have time for us to wait for that! I'll be quick and quiet and find my way out of here. Somebody should stay with Snotlout though incase I don't make it though… It'll be best if he has somebody by his side to make sure he doesn't hurt himself through the fevers._ "

"Okay… I'll be back and I'll try to find another way in." Hiccup said, "Okay? Toothless has Echolocation abilities and if we can find a way in we'll be able to find you using that. Adara… be safe okay?"

" _I promise I'll be fine, just go!_ "

"Come on, Bud, you heard her." Hiccup limped over, climbing onto the back of the Nightfury. With his leg being frozen they wouldn't be able to fly so running off was their best option. "You better be alive when I get back!" He yelled, as Toothless turned then took off running down the snow covered path towards Dragon's Edge.

 _ **This is all my fault!**_ Toothless thought, _**If she dies it's all my fault!**_


	11. Trust In The Dark

_(Author's Note: This chapter will likely be the only one with an Adara POV because I am trying to stick with my original plan of keeping it with Astrid, Hiccup, and Toothless but I decided that in this case it would be a really good idea to allow Adara to have some of the spotlight, ya'know? Anyways, if you have any idea's or comments please let me know! Any feedback encourages me to continue my stories! I love it! Anyways, whenever I have a chapter in Adara's POV I will let you know because I would rather not break my silent vow to keep it between my three favorite characters!_

 _The song Adara Sings in her second part is a parody of: Stay Away From Me by NateWantsToBattle)_

Adara listened until she could no longer hear Toothless and Hiccup when she began to feel sick with worry. Her hands were cut and bleeding from the fall she had taken when the cave collapsed, and her knees were in about the same state as the palms were.

Very little light made it's way from the spaces between the rocks and the ice but it was enough to help her put the Purple Moss in the bag and pull out a torch from her bag she knelt down. She placed the stick between her thighs before she grabbed two stones and began to bang them together.

The cloth wrapped around the head of the torch was soaked in Monstrous Nightmare Gel, which being extremely flammable lit after only a few hits, lighting up the cave around her. She took the first few moments in the light to look around, making sure that dragon that had dashed passed her was no longer near her. She was sure it had left a while ago but now she had the light to prove it.

 _ **Okay… just stay quiet and you'll be okay**_. She thought, slowly getting back up to her feet, the torch in her right hand and the bag on her back. _**You'll be fine, just get out of here, you have to get the Antidote to Snotlout.**_

Hiccup

Hiccup rode Toothless all the way back to the Clubhouse thankful to see that Ruffnut and Tuffnut had managed to bring Astrid back without any problems, on their end but now there was another problem and he wasn't going to be able to take care of this one without help.

"Guys!" He said, causing everybody to turn and face him.

"Did you get the medicine?" Fishlegs asked, just before Ruffnut asked.

"Where is Adara?"

"There was a cave in, she's trapped." Hiccup said, "We need help."

The entire team went pale but no more than Ruffnut who looked like she was going to be physically sick at the news. They looked at each other before Fishlegs turned and looked at Snotlout worriedly.

"What about Snotlout? We can't leave him here, maybe I should stay."

"No, we need you and Meatlug to eat the rocks. Astrid, will you say?" Hiccup asked, "I need somebody here watching him."

Astrid seemed to hesitate for a moment but nodded, "Yeah, I can do that." She said, "Go help Adara, I have things under control here."

"Thanks." Fishlegs said, giving Snotlout another glance before he jogged out and Over to Meatlug while the twins ran straight over to their Zippleback, climbing on.

Ruffnut looked almost like she was going to jump out of her skin she was so nervous for her friend. Hiccup would have normally been more curious about the look on her face but right now getting Adara out of the care safe was his only worry.

Once everybody was on their dragons Toothless started running to the cave again, deciding that it would be safer if he and Hiccup were already on the ground when the leg froze instead of in the air and risking a horrible crash that could cause one or both of them to die.

Adara

" _Stay away from me…_ " Adara almost silently to herself as she walked through the cave, flinching at the sound of her own voice. She enjoyed singing, she always had, but she had never been good at it. She was thankful that she was alone in this situation for she would never be able to live down the embarrassment of one of her friends hearing her sing, especially Ruffnut.

" _Or else I'm soon to be, dead at the bottom of the sea._ _So stay away from me…_ "

Adara peeked around a corner slowly, holding the light into the darkness, glad to see that there were nothing but rocks all around. She sucked in a sharp breath and once again continued to walk, her hands trembling in pure fear.

Adara hoped that the dragon had left and that she was trapped all alone in the cave but a large part of her suspected that wasn't the case. The feeling of being watched only supported that feeling.

She turned around slowly, waving the light around, once again making sure she wasn't being followed from behind. " _Where the hell are all my friends? It's really dark and it's getting cold._ " She shivered softly, continuing to make up the song as she walked through the cave, her boots echoing right along with the clank of her armor and her scratchy and scared voice.

It was then that she heard a skittering noise that stopped her in her tracks, her heart racing through her chest as she looked around. She nibbled her bottom lip in fear, waiting for a moment before she once again began to walk, this time deciding against signing and began to sneak more doing all she could to be quieter than a snake through water.

Adara thought it was working for the longest time until a thump could be heard behind her. She gulped heavily and slowly looked over her shoulder coming face to face with a large dragon with glowing purple eyes and black pupils. It was white on the top but it's belly was a light tan color like the rocks of the cave. It had scales on the back of it's head making it look almost fluffy like a sheep but it was also glistening in the light which provided Adara a guess of how sharp they were and that they were extremely dangerous.

The dragon growled, getting close to Adara and backing her up against a wall, making the girl's breathing speed up until she was essentially hyperventilating in panic. She tried to remember what Hiccup taught her only hours ago, tried to remember all he had told her on how to train dragons but instead all she could remember was what happened when she was a child, and that only made her feel more afraid.

-FLASHBACK-

Six year old Adara ran down the beach of the Sonne island, enjoying the heat of the summer months. She loved Summer, it was her favorite time of the year without any competition. It was warm, the crops flourished and fish were plentiful making the stress on her dad lesser and gave her time to spend with the loving man who in all meanings of the words was "over protective".

That day was one of the day's she wished she had listened her father's warnings, but wouldn't know that until after it was too late. Adara rounded a sharp turn on the water coming face to face with a metal covered dragon with piercing blue eyes that seemed to burn into her soul, causing her to stop in pure terror. She knew she had to be quiet, knew that they were less aggressive if not agitated but she was scared, and let out a scream.

Her scream echoed throughout the island, as she turned and scrambled away from the dragon, getting only a few feet before a sharp pain radiated through her back where the tail of the dragon had ripped through the skin on her back. She stumbled, falling to her hands and knees as she sobbed, the pain was like something she had never felt before and caused her screaming to only become louder.

The dragon was going to strike her yet again, this time with a fatal blow but the blow was blocked when a shield was suddenly placed between her back and the dangerous creature. On the other side of the shield was none other than a very furious and over protective father with a look of anger she would have never seen after this moment.

"Dad!" She called.

"Run, Adara! Go back to the village and don't stop until you make it back home!"

-PRESENT-

Adara whimpered in fear, turning her head to look away what she suspected would be the last sight she ever saw before she was killed at the claw's of such a beautiful creature. But instead of pain like she was expecting the dragon began sniffing her, making her tense.

Seconds felt like minutes and minutes like hours but she eventually convinced herself to look at the dragon once again. It was now sitting in front of her, watching her curiously. Adara began sliding away from the dragon which earned her a warning snarl. Upon hearing such a terrible noise Adara froze yet again.

"What do you want?" She asked, trying not to cry in fear.

The dragon seemed to understand the question and let out a howl making her flinch. It took Adara a moment but it slowly came to her. She was a _terrible_ singer, she had been told that her entire life yet this dragon seemed to enjoy it.

 _ **A tone deaf dragon, great.**_ She thought to herself. She then bit her lip again and sucked in a breath and once again began to sing.

" _Stay away from me…_ " She sang, her voice shaking as she looked at the Dragon who seemed to smile upon hearing the voice.

 _ **Okay, Who do I train a dragon who is clearly broken?**_

Three made up songs later Adara found that she was able to move around without any fear and once again continued to look for a way out of the cave, though the dragon still followed her around, listening to the girl now hum as she walked along. All humming stopped though when she saw light in the distance. It was sunlight.

 _ **Freedom!**_ She thought happily, running through the cave, shaking the torch until the light went out, a mistake she regretted only a few moments later when she turned a corner and the ground went from straight and even to a sudden drop off.

It came so quickly she had no time to react when the ground vanished from under her without a warning. She managed out a weak cry, closing her eyes sure that she was going to fall to her death but was surprised when instead of pain and death she felt a hard and thick object wrap around her ribcage and held her from going any further.

Adara collected herself as she looked up at what had caught her and saw that instead of being one of her friends as she had expected it was the dragon who had wrapped its tail around her. "T-thank you." She said, earning a churr from the dragon who pulled her up to safety and helped her stand before it removed it's tail from around her.

 _ **The quickest way to earn the trust of a Terrible Terror is through food, maybe this dragon is different and the way to it is through song? Okay, weird.**_ She looked the dragon in the eye before she gulped and lifted up her hand slowly, earning a growl from the dragon. _**Form a bond.**_ She remembered, closing her eyes tightly, honestly expecting to be hurt and likely lose a hand. What she wasn't expecting though was a warm head pressing against the palm of her hand.

Adara once again opened her eyes and looked at the dragon who moved its head from her hand before nuzzling against her chest.

"I-I… I did it…" She said, running her hand over the sharp scales, making sure to pet them in a way that wouldn't cause her wounds. "I trained a dragon." She then turned and faced the exit. "But now can I ride a dragon?" She asked, making her way around to the side of the dragon, once again being careful of the spikes as she climbed on the back the dragon adjusting to the new weight before it backed up and took off.

It ran a few steps before jumping across the hole in the floor and landed safely on the other side. It then jumped out of the mouth, which lead to another cliff. Once outside it snapped open it's wings and shot up in the air with a roar.

 _ **Hiccup is going to be so proud of me!**_ She thought with a happy smile, turning the dragon towards Dragons edge when she saw a familiar Zippleback, Gronkle and Nightfury outside the collapsed cave, digging frantically. "HICCUP!" She yelled, causing everybody to stop and look up at her with wide and curious eyes.


	12. Tune

Hiccup felt sicker and sicker with each passing moment. His hands ached from pulling rocks away, his foot throbbed from the cold, and his head hurt from worry. His little sister was trapped in a cave with a dragon he knew _nothing_ about. He was beginning to worry he would never see her again when he heard his name being called from above.

At first he thought it was Astrid, who he had told to stay back at base to keep an eye on Snotlout if the fever hit him while they were gone, but when he looked up all the worry he had expressed themselves in a large smile. Above him was Adara who had gone into the cave terrified of dragons had managed to not only train the wild dragon but was now riding it above their heads.

Hiccup watched them carefully as the landed on the ground before he limped over to Adara and her dragon friend. The dragon gave a protective growl which made Hiccup smile before he held out his hand, the dragon hesitated but closed it's eyes and put it's head against the boy's hand.

"Amazing, how did you tame it?" Hiccup asked, watching as Adara climbed off, but before she could answer Toothless let out a roar, tackling the human girl to the ground, licking her face excitedly.

"Toothless!" She giggled loudly, "That tickles! Stop!"

Hiccup smiled, pulling his dragon off of her the look in the Nightfury's eyes being one of relief. He had likely been blaming himself for the cave-in and the fact that the girl was alive and breathing in front of them seemed to help make him relax quite a bit.

"Did you get the moss?" Tuffnut asked while Fishleg's examined the new dragon and Ruffnut pulled the other girl to her feet, hugging her tightly.

"I did." She smiled, "It's in the bag." She forced Ruffnut to let her go before she climbed back onto her dragon. "Let's get back before the ice melts off of it, it'll be harder to turn it to powder if it's not frozen." She said. "After that I'll explain _everything_."

Upon making it back to Dragon's Edge Adara made her way directly into the Clubhouse. She pulled the frozen Purple Poxie Moss putting into a bowl before she grabbed a large rock and began smashing up the frozen plant. Ruffnut stayed close to the short haired girl, as though afraid to take her eyes off of her for a second with the new and unusual dragon resting at their feet curious about the entire situation around them.

Deciding that they would be able to do it without his help Hiccup walked over to his cousin, touching his head. It was almost time for the fevers to kick in and he was glad that they had managed to come too bad. Hiccup sucked in a breath.

Hiccup frowned, the worry about what could happen to his cousin without the help of Adara, and they wouldn't have been able to save her if it hadn't been for the snow dragon.

"Okay, it's ready." Adara said, "I have to figure out how to get him to inhale this." She said, nibbling her lip. "But Ruffnut and I can handle this you should go eat, you're still healing and by the look on Toothless's face it's clear he's hungry."

Hiccup looked down at the Nightfury and smiled. "You're right, shout if you need our help, okay?"

"Okay." Adara smiled.

Hiccup sucked in a breath before Hiccup left the room, Toothless close behind him.

Two hours later Snotlout had inhaled the medicine who was still sleeping soundly as the medicine kicked in. It would take a while to kick in so they all sat outside of the Barn listening to Adara explain how she trained the fluffy looking dragon. Even for Hiccup it was strange to hear the story.

"You sang to her?" Fishleg's said, "That's so strange. Death Songs are the only dragons we've heard of that can produce or actually understand music."

"Yeah? Well I think maybe she's broken." Adara said with a weak laugh, "I can't sing, I mean, I suck at it, for such a beautiful creature to understand my disaster of a voice there has to be something wrong." She looked down at the Woolly Howl who was playing with Toothless on the ground below.

"Can you show us?" Ruffnut asked with a smile making Adara blush.

"W-what?" She laughed.

"Sing." Ruff said, gently touching the brunette's hand. "See if just you singing can get her to come up to you."

"That's not a bad idea." Fishleg's said, "If it works then you'll have a way to get her to come to you if you're in trouble."

Adara's face was red with blush but she nodded slowly and closed her eyes, as though afraid to look at anybody around her as she started to sing. "I um…" She cleared her throat. " _I-I got my axe and I got my mace and I love my wife with the ugly face._ " She sang, quietly.

Hiccup would never say it out loud but she had been right about one thing, her voice wasn't necessarily appealing, and while it was, arguably, better than Gobbers it wasn't that much better. He did his best to ignore her singing as he looked down and watched as the large dragon who had been running around and playing suddenly slid to a stop, sitting straight and seemed to be listening.

The dragon looked up, it's purple eyes full of curiosity and wonder as she jumped up onto the landing pad, following the sound of Adara who continued to sing. With each word her ears would twitch and a few times her entire head tilted. She got close to Adara, sniffing her ear making the brunette stop singing all together before she opened her eyes and giggled.

"Amazing! We will have to test her ability to find you later to see if it'll be actually be useful." Fishleg's said, making Adara blush harder as she put her head against her dragon's.

"What are you going to call her?" Astrid asked.

"I'm thinking about Tune." Adara said, then grunted as the dragon, seeming to understand that her name was now Tune, licked her face over and over again.

Tune pushed her down, pinning her to the ground as she continued to lick Adara's hair, pushing it all around in different directions. It was strange but Hiccup had seen the behavior before with other dragons, which is helped him understand.

"I know why she's reacting to the song," Hiccup said, causing everybody to turn, even Tune who looked slightly irritated that Hiccup stopped her in the middle of bathing Adara.

"What?" Adara laughed, rubbing the spit off her face.

"The way she's grooming you, some dragon's do it to their young to calm them down. I think that when Tune hear's your singing it's like hearing an infant crying. She thinks your in distress so she comes to check on you, that's why she started licking out."

"So what does that mean?" Ruffnut asked.

"It means, Tune has adopted Adara as a child."

"Great." Adara laughed then moaned in disgust as she licked her hair again. "My mom is a dragon."

"I wonder why though." Fishlegs chimed in, "Why is this dragon so much more maternal than most?"

"No idea, it could just be the way Woolly Howls are." Hiccup shrugged, watching as Adara finally got to her feet, putting her hands out.

"I'm okay, Tune, I'm okay." She said and Tune seemed to relax before dashing over to play with Toothless again. Adara shuddered, "Ew…"

"Yeah, that doesn't wash out." Hiccup told her with a side smile. "You can try though."

Adara blushed softly, sticking out her tongue for a moment before gagging and sticking it back into her mouth. "I'm going to take a bath. A long bath." She said, "So stay outta the cove." She said, giving the group a glare that would even scare Hookfang.

"No problem." Tuffnut said, putting his hands up in defence.

"Can I join you?" Ruff asked, with a soft blush on her face.

"Only if you let me wash your hair." Adara smiled, the two walking off.

"And get rid of the beautiful appearance?"

"You'll always be beautiful, even more so if your hair wasn't green with Fish Oil." She smiled.

"You know they like each other, right?" Astrid whispered, making Hiccup turn and look at her with a blush.

"Wait what?"

"Yeah." Astrid said, "Ever since Ruffnut saw that scar on her back she's had a huge crush on her. As far as I can tell Adara feels the same way about her."

"Scar? What scar?" Hiccup said, his smile instantly forming to a frown.

"That scar on Adara's back." She repeated, "You know, large scar, takes up almost the entire back… you didn't know she had a scar?"

"No, I had no idea." Hiccup nibbled his thumbnail.

Astrid touched his shoulder, "Well she seems sensitive about it, so maybe that's why you don't know, she kept it a secret but from what I can tell she was attacked by a dragon. But again, that's just from what I can tell, I could easily be wrong about that."

Tuffnut smiled, "Maybe she's a weredragon!" He said, causing everybody to look at him.

"A _Weredragon_?" Fishlegs asked, "What the hell is that?"

"You know, like half human half dragon!" Tuff said, getting more and more excited with each passing moment. "That scar could be the marking of the Weredragon and she's just waiting for a full moon to show herself and attack us in our sleep!" He insisted.

"I doubt she's a weredragon." Fishlegs grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest, "She's too cute to be a weredragon." He said, then frowned when Meatlug nudged his hand, "Oh! No offence girl!" He said, kissing Meatlugs head, "You know you're the only one for me."

Hiccup shuddered at a thought that crossed his mind then looked at Tuff, "And I really doubt she'll attack us in our sleep, I've known Adara almost as long as I've known you guys, but I know her better."

"Obviously not good enough." Growled Astrid, "Because you didn't know about her scar."

"Shut it." Hiccup mumbled back. He then climbed dusted off his trousers and walked over to Toothless, climbing up onto his back with a smile. "Toothless and I are going on Patrol, let me know when Snotlout wakes up." He said, rubbing Toothless's neck as they shot into the air and flew quickly into the air.

The truth was he was going to kill two birds with one stone, he needed to clear his head and figured the best way to do that was to 'patrol' at the same exact time. He looked down at the ground, his eyes trained at the water looking for any little thing out of place, even with patrols everyday Dagur and some of his men had managed to sneak onto Dragon's Edge without any trouble. Hiccup had to make sure that no matter what happened to him he had to protect Toothless, Astrid, and the others.

Hiccup blushed softly realizing that he specifically thought of Astrid. Life was nice at the moment, everything seemed to have mellowed out so far, but he knew that wouldn't last long. He needed to tell Astrid how he felt, needed to tell her that he loved her and that he was going to protect her no matter what. She had been his long-time crush, his first kiss, and his best friend. She had been the first one to know about Toothless and the first one to accept the fact that things in Berk were going to change whether it be for the worst or for the better she didn't know yet she still stood by him.

Toothless churred, seeming to sense something was wrong with his brother, as he glanced up at Hiccup.

Hiccup smiled, petting Toothless with a smile. "Don't worry bud, I'm alright. Just a lot on my mind." He promised

Toothless churred yet again, turning his attention back in front of him.

' _ **I**_ _ **have**_ _**to tell her how I feel! I have to tell her before it's too late for one - or both - of us.**_ ' Hiccup thought, giving his lip a timid nibble.

"What do you think about Tune so far boy?" He asked Toothless who let out a happy coo sound. Hiccup nodded, the wonder of why Tune had been so aggressive at first continued to be aggressive towards the other female dragons on occasion. It was almost as though she was being overprotective of something happening around her.

He was worried about the situation with the new dragon, Adara who was still adjusting to live with other teenagers, and now coming to terms with his feelings for Astrid. He sucked in a breath, laying backwards on Toothless as he looked up at the sky, mentally making shapes out of the clouds that rested above him.

The ride was peaceful and strangely quiet as they flew around the Edge on patrol, or at least that's what Hiccup was going to call it, but it was honestly more of a joyride than anything else. He would have payed more attention to the water if he had actually been patrolling the island and looking for danger. He knew he should have been looking more, examining the ground better but also knew that he would likely stress himself out more than he needed to about something so small.

Half an hour later they landed on the ground near the others. Astrid was leaning against Stormfly as she drew on a piece of paper, likely a defence plan for if the island was attacked. Fishlegs and Meatlug were nowhere to be seen and were likely back at their hut enjoying the mud bath under their house. Then there was Tuffnut who was talking to Chicken who for some reason seemed to understand the boy as much as Tuffnut understood Chicken. He didn't know why Tuffnut decided the Chicken was better company than the rest of them but as long as the male twin wasn't causing problems Hiccup wasn't going to complain too much.

Hiccup climbed off of Toothless, walking over to Astrid his heart pounding as he looked at the paper. Despite what Hiccup thought she was drawing a picture of Stormfly, or what he could only guess was Stormfly, Astrid had never been the most artistic one of the group. She had her own sense of art, even if it was weird in Hiccup's eyes.

"Astrid, can… can we talk?" He asked.

"Sure, Hiccup, is something wrong?"

"N-not wrong exactly, I just need to tell you something." Hiccup's hands were beginning to sweat as the idea of telling this beautiful young girl how he felt about her danced in his head. He was so afraid she would turn him down, tell him that she didn't feel the same. Something like that could ruin their friendship but he knew that if something happened to him he would rather not have that secret weighing down his trip to Valhalla.

"What is it?" Astrid put down her paper and pencil before getting to her feet. Her blue eyes, which were the color of the ocean and were extremely beautiful, making him struggle with words.

"I… I… I um…" He could hardly form a word let alone a sentence as he looked down at his boots as his face began to feel as though it was on fire. Luckily, he was saved from himself when a very dizzy and sleepy Snotlout walked over, almost tripping over himself.

"What happene'?" Snotlout rubbed his eyes as he startled everybody, wrapping his arms around Hiccup's neck and hugging him. "What happene' 'iccup?" He blinked up, his blue eyes blurry and almost grey with exhaustion.

"You got sick." Hiccup explained as he tried to pry the larger teen's arms off of him. "Really sick, you could have died. We found a new dragon and got the cure at the same time." Hiccup said, giving Astrid a pleading look for her to help him, she just giggled and stuck her arms up as though to say she was going to stay out of it. "How are you feeling now?" He asked, Snotlout grabbed Hiccup's shoulders looking him in the eyes with a glare.

"I'm Snotlout, ain't no sickness gonna kill me." He said, then punched Hiccup's shoulder, making the thinner teen flinch. "If anybody is going to die from being sick, it'll be you, 'iccup." He said, pushing Hiccup away before going over and sitting next to Hookfang who was looking at him with a rather worried look on his face.

"So what did you want to talk about?" Astrid asked.

Hiccup gave a weak smile. "I'll um, I'll tell you later." He promised.


End file.
